The V-2 missile, for the first time in the history of rockets and missiles, came out as the single greatest achievement during 1920s.
The first V-2 missile, which tested unsuccessfully in June 1942, was finally test fired successfully on 16 August 1942, and became the first rocket of its kind to exceed the speed of time.
Wernher von Braun supervised production of more than 10,000 V-2 missiles during the period April to October 1944 at the underground production unit near Nordhausen in Germany.
Wernher von Braun is considered the father of modern rocketry—a scientist, a designer, a production engineer, an administrator and a technology manager—all rolled into one; a person who embraced all superlatives.
Wernher von Braun was captured by the Allied Forces and was given a top position in the rocketry programme at NASA as a tribute to his genius. As a result of this he produced a missile for the U.S. army which was named ‘Jupiter’. This was the first Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile with a 3,000 km. range.
Wernher von Braun created the ‘Saturn’ rocket which was used in the Apollo mission to enable the astronauts to land on the surface of the moon.
Dr. Abdul Kalam, along with his team, had built a heavier-than-air flying machine (hovercraft) at the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore. This hovercraft was built for tactical purposes, and the director of this project was Dr. O.P. Mediratta. This flying machine was named Nandi. The then Defence Minister, Krishna Menon, was the first one who flew in the Nandi along with Dr. Abdul Kalam and later prof. M.G.K. Menon, Director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) also took a ride in it. Prof. M.G.K. Menon was very happy at the success of the flying machine. The positive result of the great success was that Dr. Abdul Kalam was interviewed and absorbed as a rocket engineer at INCOSPAR (Indian Committee for Space Research).
From Bangalore Dr. Abdul Kalam came to Thumba, a village near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. INCOSPAR had set up the Equatorial Rocket Launching Station there. Later he was sent to America for a six-month training programme on sounding rocket launching techniques at the NASA work centres. NASA is in Hampton, Virgina.
The sounding rocket, Nike-Apache, which was made at NASA, was India’s first rocket. It was launched on 21 November 1963 after Dr. Kalam’s return from NASA. The launch was smooth and problem-free.
In order to conduct space research in India, the INCOSPAR was reconstituted as an advisory body under the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was created under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
The TERLS (Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station) was established at Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). The St. Mary Magdalene church housed the first office of the Thumba Space Centre.
Dr. Chitnis of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad had spotted the location at Thumba as the most suitable place as it is close to the earth’s magnetic equator. He was very much impressed by Dr. Abdul Kalam’s performances.
Dr. Abdul Kalam during his training period in America, had also gone to the Goddard Space Flight Centre (GSFC) at Greenbelt, Maryland.
Dr. Kalam, towards the end of his visit, had also gone to the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast, Virginia.
The first Rohini-75 was launched from TERLS on 20 November 1967.
After this, began the work on India’s first satellite Launch Vehicle, SLV-3. It was on 18 July 1980 that the Rohini Satellite was put into orbit.
Two rockets, Rohini and Menaka (mythological dancers in the court of Indra), were made at Thumba.
It was at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, where a massive missile development project had been taken up by DRDO.
The Gulf War broke out on 15 January 1991 and it was during this year that America launched its attack on Iraq using Strategic Ballistic Missiles.
India had obtained a large number of Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs) from the USSR after the bitter experiences of the two wars in 1962 and 1965 so that the strategic locations could be guarded.
Indian Rocket Society was formed in the year 1968.
The Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad, was established under DRDO.
The work on Polar Sattelite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was also carried out at Thumba.
On 8 October 1972 the RATO system was successfully tested at Bareilly Air Force Station in Uttar Pradesh, when a high performance Sukhoi-16 jet aircraft became airborne after a short run of 1200 m. as against its usual run of 2 km.
In order to have a judicious sharing of resources, Dr. Abdul Kalam arranged to organize 78 partners for IGMDP for various systems of missile.
The SLV-3, built by Dr. Abdul Kalam and his team, took off successfully on 18 July 1980 at 0803 hrs. from SHAR.
The next flight of SLV-3 which was named SLV3-D1, took off on 31 May 1981.
A National Test Range was established at Chandipur in Balasore district of Orrisa. Seeing Dr. Kalam’s love for birds it was decided to keep this establishment away from the bird sanctuary which was in Chandipur.
India, keeping in view its defence aspects and the requirements of the Indian Army, developed a third generation anti-tank guided missile having fire-and forget capabilities.
The modified and extended range Devil missile was fired on 26 June 1984. This was done after installing a make-shift launcher in order to flight test the first indigenous Strap-down Inertial Guidance system. This was, in the history of missile technology of India, the first and most important step taken by our great scientists.
New missiles and great achievements
Prahlada was selected for Akash (‘‘Sky’’)—a Surface-to-Air area defence system.
N.R. Iyer was selected for the anti-tank missile project—Nag (‘‘Cobra’’)
Commander S.R. Mohan was selected for the Tactical core Vehicle which was called Trishul (the trident of Lord Shiva). This missile took off from the test range at Sriharikota (SHAR) on 16 September 1985.
R.N. Agarwal was selected for Agni (‘‘Fire’’)—Dr. Kalam’s long cherished dream of REX. The launch of this missile was scheduled for 22 May 1989, and it did take off successfully at 0710 hrs.
Col. V.J. Sundaram, who belonged to the EME Corps. of the Indian Army, was selected for the Prithvi project. The flight test of Prithvi was scheduled for June 1987, as promised by Dr. Abdul Kalam to Shrimati Indira Gandhi; but due to certain unavoidable circumstances this missile was launched on 25 February 1988 at 11:23 hrs. Prithvi was a Surface-to-Surface missile, and was capable of delivering a 1,000 kg. conventional warhead upto a distance of 150 km. with an accuracy of 50 metre CEP. This great success of India perplexed the neighbouring countries all around. The second successful launch of Prithvi took place sometime during September 1988. This time it could carry 1,000 kg. of warhead upto a distance of 250 km. and could deliver it within a radius of 50 metres.
By having built missiles of vital importance, Dr. Abdul Kalam has put India in the first row as far as Indian defence system is concerned.
