The country is celebrating the 102nd anniversary of the birth of India's great scientist Vikram Sarabhai today. Sarabhai is called the father of the country's space program. ISRO was established by his own efforts and he was also its first chairman. Sarabhai, who was a physicist and astronomer, had also contributed to the development of atomic energy in the country. Due to his inspiration, today the country's space program has progressed so far.
Vikram Sarabhai was born on 12 August 1919 in Ahmedabad in the family of famous industrialist Sarabhai. Sarabhai received his doctorate in cosmic rays from Cambridge University. He persuaded the Indian government to launch its own space program after the launch of Russia's first spacecraft, Sputnik.
In 1962, the Government of India established the Indian National Space Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) on the advice of Sarabhai. Due to his efforts, INCOSPAR was later reconstituted, and on 15 August 1969, it was established under the name Indian Space Research Institute i.e. ISRO. He was also elected its first chairman.
Vikram Sarabhai developed India's first rocket launching station with the help of Homi Jehangir Bhabha. Apart from India's first satellite Aryabhata, the arrival of cable TV for the first time in India was because of his NASA contacts in 1975 that the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment was established in the country.
He was the Chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission from 1966 to 1971 and carried forward the work of great scientist Homi Jehangir Bhabha in establishing India's Atomic Energy Centers.
Dr Sarabhai's name is given to a crater on the Moon. In 1974, the International Astronomical Union based in Sydney, Australia honoured him by naming the crater of the Moon as Sarabhai Crater. It is an 8 km diameter circular crater located near Bessel Crater in the Sea of Tranquility in the northeast region of the Moon. Earlier its name was Basel-A Crater.
Not only this, two years ago, the name of the lander of Chandrayaan 2 was also named by Vikram Lander ISRO after Dr Vikram Sarabhai. This was India's first lander-rover module to the Moon. But this lander failed to land the Pragyan rover safely on the lunar surface. This Vikram lander was to serve as a communication link between the rover and the orbiter.
Vikram Sarabhai played a major role in the establishment of many institutions in the country such as the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) of Ahmedabad, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad itself and the Variable Energy Cyclotron Project in Kolkata.
Apart from this, he contributed in the establishment of Operations Research Group, Nehru Foundation for Development in Ahmedabad, Community Science Center Ahmedabad in Ahmedabad, Fast Breeder Test Reactor at Kalpakkam, Electronics Corporation of India Limited in Hyderabad and Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jaduguda, Jharkhand.
Dr. Sarabhai died on 30 December 1971 in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Vikram Sarabhai, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1966, was awarded the Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 1972. On his first death anniversary, the Department of Posts issued a postage stamp in his honour.
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