Reach for the stars : the evolution of India’s rocket programme

Reach for the Stars: The Evolution of India’s Rocket Programme relates, for the first time, how India developed its satellite launch capability. It has been a challenging journey with its share of success, failure and heartbreak, and one rendered all the more difficult as most of the technology had to be developed indigenously, ranging from the rocket engines themselves to precision guidance systems. Today India is able to design and build its own Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) to launch remote sensing satellites used in weather forecasting, resource mapping and crop yield estimates—functions crucial to putting the country on the fast track to development. In fact, the Indian remote sensing satellites form the largest constellation of such satellites in space.