On 21 November 1963, the first rocket took off from Thumba, a fishing hamlet near Thiruvananthapuram, announcing the birth of India's space programme. The rocket, the payload, the radar, the computer, the helicopter - all that was required for the launch - came from outside the country. Fifty years later, on 5 November 2013, when ISRO launched its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, all of it had been indigenously manufactured. Ten months after the launch, on 24 September 2014, India became the first country in the world to put a satellite around the Red Planet in the very first attempt. From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet tracks this stupendous journey through articles, interviews and reminiscences with contributions from intellectual giants like Dr Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, M.S. Swaminathan, Jacques Blamont, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, U.R. Rao and Dr K. Kasturirangan, among others, this is the story of India's space journey from its modest beginnings to its rendezvous with Mars.

Fifty years in the making, India's Space Programme is fulfilling the vision of its founders and delivering services from space that touch the lives of 1.3 billion people every day. In addition to operating a collection of satellites for weather, Earth observation, navigation and communication today, India has a spacecraft orbiting Mars and a space telescope in Earth orbit. This book provides the big picture of India's long association with science, from historical figures like Aryabhata and Bhaskara to Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, the key architects of its space program. It covers the scientific contribution of Indian scientists during the European Enlightenment and industrial revolution. It traces the technological development of Tipu Sultan's use of rockets for war in the 1780s; the all-but-forgotten contribution of Stephen H Smith's use of rockets as a means of transport in 1935 in northern India; and the emergence of Sriharikota – India's spaceport, the heart of India's modern Space Programme. • A detailed account of how a fishing village in Kerala was transformed into a space centre and used to launch India's first rocket into space on 21 November 1963. • A detailed summary of India's space infrastructure – launch vehicles, deep space network, Telemetry, Tracking and Command and space assets in orbit. • Description of how the ordinary people of India benefit from the services delivered by the space programme • Why India chose to go to the Moon and Mars and how it got there. • The prospects for India's ambitions in space for human spaceflight, national security and scientific exploration • An analysis of how India's Space Programme may play out on the global stage. Will it compete or collaborate with China, USA and Russia in space? This detailed work, in 645 pages, 29 tables and 9 appendices, is richly illustrated with 140+ illustrations (some images published for the first time) and supported by over 1,000 references. It is written for the non-specialist, offering a big-picture view.

This book presents the renewing strategic vision and progressive diversification of the Indian space programme at the nexus socio-economic development, commerce and geopolitics. It disentangles India ́s evolving rationales for engaging in space from a wide range of perspectives and provides novel and in-depth assessment of the domestic, regional and international factors influencing the pace and directions of the country’s space programme. The study hence includes an extensive analysis of India’s path forward, including a reflection on the long-term evolution of its civil, military and commercial space efforts, as well as considerations on the toolbox India has at its disposal, on the prospected adaptation of the space ecosystem, and on the implications these evolutions may generate both domestically and internationally. A central part of this final analysis is more specifically devoted to elaborating on the prospects and opportunities for European stakeholders, with the goal of identifying possible domains of closer and mutually beneficial Europe-India space cooperation and sorting out possible elements for a comprehensive European long-term strategy towards India.

Militarizing Outer Space explores the dystopian and destructive dimensions of the Space Age and challenges conventional narratives of a bipolar Cold War rivalry. Concentrating on weapons, warfare and vio​lence, this provocative volume examines real and imagined endeavors of arming the skies and conquering the heavens. The third and final volume in the groundbreaking ​European Astroculture trilogy, ​Militarizing Outer Space zooms in on the interplay between security, technopolitics and knowledge from the 1920s through the 1980s. Often hailed as the site of heavenly utopias and otherworldly salvation, outer space transformed from a promised sanctuary to a present threat, where the battles of the future were to be waged. Astroculture proved instrumental in fathoming forms and functions of warfare’s futures past, both on earth and in space. The allure of dominating outer space, the book shows, was neither limited to the early twenty-first century nor to current American space force rhetorics.

In 2014, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan was named one of the top ten scientists in the world by Nature magazine—the first Indian scientist to be so honoured. Earlier that year, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully ran the Mars Orbiter Mission, popularly known as the ‘Mangalyaan’ mission. ISRO’s Moon Rover, scheduled for 2018, is also Radhakrishnan’s brainchild. Witness to the transformation of India’s space programme in the early 1980s, Radhakrishnan cut his teeth with the SLV-3 project, the country’s first satellite launch vehicle. He worked with stalwarts like Dr Vikram Sarabhai, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Prof. Satish Dhawan and Mr Y.S. Rajan, wearing several different hats during his illustrious and challenging career. Radhakrishnan eventually turned major setbacks into roaring successes by his unfailingly belief in human endeavour and a commitment to excellence. Packed with invaluable information and insights, this fascinating memoir takes us behind the scenes of India’s cutting-edge world of scientific achievement.

'We are convinced that if we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the community of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society, and the courage to leapfrog to state-of-the-art engineering and technology pursuits rather than step-by-step scientific developments.' These famous words of Dr Vikram Sarabhai propel every initiative of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). The Leapfroggers, too, is an outcome of the same spirit. Featured in the book is Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the first Project Director of SLV-3, India's most prestigious space project in the 1970s. Ved Prakash Sandlas was part of Kalam's core team and eventually took over from him after the first successful launch in 1980. Sandlas was one of the first engineers to join ISRO in its formative years in the 1960s. In this book, he reflects on the ISRO culture: the styles, values and characteristics of its people; their aspirations and ambitions; and their beliefs, prejudices, superstitions and limitations. Woven with interesting anecdotes and scientific detail, The Leapfroggers is the human story of ISRO's and India's technological advancement.

Authored by an Astronomy and Space Engineer this book, the first of its kind, explores in details the various prospects for an Indian student to pursue astronomy as a career. It is like a single shelter where any interested student will find ample information and suitable guidance to pursue astronomy as a career. It will also help especially Indian parents and faculties of various institutes to guide prospective students for opting a career in astronomy. Written in lucid style, the book is a valuable asset for any interested student having a dream of 'Becoming an Astronomer'.

The Oxford Handbook of Space Security focuses on the interaction between space technology and international and national security processes. Saadia M. Pekkanen and P.J. Blount have gathered a group of key scholars who bring a range of analytical and theoretical perspectives to take an analytically-eclectic approach to assessing space security from an international relations (IR) theory perspective. Bringing together scholarship from a group of leading experts, this volume explains how these contemporary changes will affect future security in, from, and through space.

This book discusses the need for national space legislation in India in the wake of private stakeholders entering the field and the expansion of outer space activities. Highlighting India’s commitment to responsibly pursuing its outer space ambitions through rule of law, the book discusses the rationale behind national space legislation and addresses the requirements of both international and domestic law. In order to suggest draft framework national space legislation for India, it examines and compares the legislations of twenty major space-faring countries to identify the best practices. One of the few scientific studies in India that proposes draft framework legislation for space activities in India, this book summarizes the three main reasons why national space legislation is necessary – to fulfill international obligations, to address India’s specific requirements and to enable non-governmental entities to participate. A must read for anyone interested in international space law and India’s role and responsibility toward it, it is a valuable resource for academics, scientists, policymakers, industry executives, lawyers and students as well as amateur space enthusiasts.