“At T-Zero, the check-out computer at the block house switched on the Stage 1 motor. And SLV-3, the epitome of the hopes and aspirations of thousands of people, soared towards the sky.” That’s how Countdown, the in-house journal of ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) described, in 1980, the crucial moments of an event which gained India a membership in an exclusive space club.
Saturday, July 18, will mark the 40th anniversary of the first successful flight of the Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). On that day in 1980, SLV-3 lifted off from Sriharikota to place the 35 kg RS-1 (Rohini satellite) in orbit. The mission’s success made India the sixth nation capable of launching satellites.
“I have been saying earlier that seven years of hard work will be proved in 436 seconds. Today this has come true,” a jubilant A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the SLV-3 Project Director who would go on to become the President, was quoted as saying after the mission. The first experimental flight on August 10, 1979, was a failure.
Great teamwork
Great teamwork contributed to the mission’s success. Kalam was Project Director and S. Srinivasan was the Deputy Project Director. Project managers of various critical systems included G. Madhavan Nair, V.P. Sandlas, M.S.R. Dev, M.K. Abdul Majeed, E.V.S. Namboodiri, N. Sundararajan, U.S. Singh, D. Sasikumar, D. Narayanamurthy, Vijaikumar, C. Soupramaniane, and P.S. Veeraraghavan.
“With this mission, India was noticed as a spacefaring nation. It also showed us we are capable of mastering the multi-disciplinary launch vehicle technologies,” says former VSSC Director S. Ramakrishnan, who was closely associated with the project.
