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When India got independence, it was a very underdeveloped country which was struggling to find its position on the globe. There was an economic crisis, constant border clashes, and illiteracy was at its peak. The government of India, since the time of independence, has been actively working towards the overall growth of its people and providing a significant rise in economic conditions. All the resources have been allocated towards the growth of all the necessities. One of these is the space exploration section. Looking beyond earth is a vision which every prominent and self-sufficient country wants. India has invested heavily in its Space exploration unit, ISRO, which has played a monumental role in developing the launch vehicles in India. All of this started during the decade of 1970s when the country started working towards launching vehicles, and as of today, it is extremely self-reliant in that aspect. This article will focus on the history and significance of some of the major launch vehicles of India.
First Launchers
India has been into the development of launch vehicles since the 1970s and has evolved its old versions and introduced some new ones as well. When it started doing this, there were two major kinds of launch vehicles in existence which are discussed below.
1. Sounding Rockets
Sounding rockets are the kind of launch vehicles which are used for the purpose of probing the upper atmospheric region. This is done using rocket-borne instrumentation. When India started its space programme, it didn’t manufacture its own launch vehicle. Instead, it used one of the launch vehicles of the USA called Nike Apache on November 21st,1963, in Kerala. Within the two years of its first launch vehicle from the USA, India started its own launch vehicle series by the name of Rohini, which is considered monumental towards the development of launch vehicles in India and has often been considered the basis of all the evolution in Launch vehicles of India.
2. Operational Sounding Rockets
Operational funding rockets are the next stage of launch vehicles in India and have been inactive use since the time of their first manufacturing. The current version of operational sounding rockets which are in use right now is RH-200 and RH-300. The basic difference between Rohini and different kinds of operational sound rockets is based on features such as the payload capacity of the vehicle. At present, the currently used vehicles have a payload capacity ranging from 90 to almost 500 km. There Is a further subdivision of operational sound rockets, which are discussed below.
(i) The Satellite Launch Vehicle- During the 1970s, very few countries in the world were acquitted with advanced space equipment, and India entered this league with the development of its indigenous launch vehicle SLV, which was partially successful in its first test but eventually took off pretty well. The reason behind its development was the rising need for a launch vehicle for communication satellites. The development of SLV further gave rise to the manufacturing of PSLV, ASLV and GSLV.
(ii) The Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle- India is a country which focuses on developing things in a cost-effective manner as channelising resources only towards the development of space exploration can hamper the growth of the earth. ASLV is the result of this cost-effective mindset of Indian scientists who developed this vehicle for the purpose of demonstrating and validating critical technologies. It is said to be quite efficient and has been successfully used four times since its launch.
Operational Launchers
Operational launchers are the next generation of launch vehicles in India which were all developed on the foundation stones made by the older ons. All the techniques, skills and methods were developed from the older version such as Rohini and ASLV. Operational launchers are further divided into two categories discussed below.
(1) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle- One of the first in its genre, PSLV is an operational launch vehicle made in India which has a capacity of 1600 kg when it comes to the payload in a 620km orbit working in synchronisation with the sun. It has six straps which hold it, and four of them open on the ground while launching while the other two are lit mid-air. It is one of the most reliable launch vehicles in India and has been significantly successful in its different events.
(2) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle- GSLV is a launch vehicle which was created with the capacity of placing 2 ton class of satellites into the geosynchronous orbit, and that’s where its name came from. It works in different stages and is a successful probe of ISRO, which is a signal of its potential and development abilities in space exploration.
Conclusion
Since the time of its arrival in the space exploration world, Indian Scientists, along with ISRO, have taken it to another level where so much development in space in a developing country is an outstanding achievement. The launch vehicles created by India are not just successful in terms of their efficiency, but one of the most significant aspects of these is their cost-effectiveness. All the vehicles which are made in India, such as PSLV, are low on budget and high on India’s Space exploration venture.
