The Amazing Story of India’s First Rocket Launch

The Amazing Story of India’s First Rocket Launch

It was 53 years ago, on November 21, 1963, that a small rocket took off from Thumba on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, announcing the birth of the modern space age in India. The sleepy palm-fringed village soon came to be known as Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS) and later became Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) . Till 1963, the obscure village of Thumba would not have merited a second look. A quintessential Kerala fishing hamlet with thatched huts, coconut groves and peaceful sea, it was an unlikely setting for a rocket launch station. However, it did have something that caught the interest of Dr Vikram Sarabhai , the father of India’s space program. A small church dedicated to St Mary Magdalene was located on the Earth’s magnetic equator. The magnetic equator is an imaginary line around the planet that connects all the points where a magnetic needle, when freely suspended, is horizontal. It is scientifically important because the magnetic equator is all where the …