Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) is India's first rocket launching station and was established on 21 November 1963. Operated by the

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...

(ISRO), it is located in Thumba,

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

, which is near the southwestern tip of mainland India, very close to Earth's

magnetic equator Magnetic dip, dip angle, or magnetic inclination is the angle made with the horizontal by Earth's magnetic field, Earth's magnetic field lines. This angle varies at different points on Earth's surface. Positive values of inclination indicate t ...

. It is currently used by ISRO for launching

sounding rocket A sounding rocket or rocketsonde, sometimes called a research rocket or a suborbital rocket, is an instrument-carrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments during its sub-orbital flight. The rockets are often ...

s. The first rockets were assembled in the former St Louis High School, which now houses a space museum. The local Bishop of Trivandrum, Rev. Peter Bernard Periera, along with Vincent Victor Dereere (a Belgian) and district collector Madhavan Nair were instrumental in acquiring a large parcel of land measuring 600 acres from coastal community. Periera had given away the prayer hall and bishop's room in the local church. Minister of State for External Affairs, Lakshmi N. Menon helped to smooth bureaucratic hurdles facing the project in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. H. G. S. Murthy was appointed as the first Director of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. Rockets launched from the site include RH-300, M-100, Nike Apache,

Arcas In Greek mythology, Arcas (; Ancient Greek: Ἀρκάς) was a hunter who became king of Arcadia. He was remembered for having taught people the arts of weaving and baking bread and for spreading agriculture to Arcadia. Family Arcas was the ...

, Boosted Arcas, Skua 1, Centaure, Centaure 2A, Centaure 2B, Nike Tomahawk,

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

1, Judi-Dart, Boosted Arcas 2,

Petrel Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the phylogenetic order Procellariiformes. Description Petrels are a monophyletic group of marine seabirds, sharing a characteristic of a nostril arrangement that results in the name "tubenoses". Petrels enco ...

1, RH-75, Skua 2, Sandhawk Tomahawk, Menaka II, RH-125, M-100B, M-100A, RH-200 and RH-300 Mk II. The site has five launchpads: * Pad 1 at , sounding rockets * Pad 2 at , sounding rockets * Pad 3 at , sounding rockets * Pad 4 at , sounding rockets * Pad 5 at , RH-300 launch complex, active after 1993

Location

Thumba's location at 8°32'34" N and 76°51'32" E is ideal for low-altitude, upper atmosphere and ionosphere studies. Thumba is a small fishing village situated close to the

airport in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

References

External links

Official website of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
{{Authority control Space programme of India Spaceports Rocket launch sites in India Organisations based in Thiruvananthapuram 1963 establishments in Kerala Buildings and structures in Thiruvananthapuram district Transport infrastructure completed in 1963

Location

See also

References

External links