Tribute to Dr Vikram Sarabhai

New Delhi: The Scientific community today remembered with gratitude the contributions of the Father of the Indian Space Programme - Dr Vikram Sarabhai on his birth anniversary.

Paying tribute to the visionary scientist, Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Prithviraj Chavan said, “The guiding vision for the Indian Space programme, from the very inception had been to be ‘second to none’ in the development of Space Technology and its applications to solve the real problems faced by the people.”

He was speaking after inaugurating a workshop on “21st Century Challenges in Space- Indian Context” here today.

The Minister said that India undertook development of satellites, launch vehicles and associated ground segment indigenously in a progressive manner, with the emphasis on self-reliance.

Sighting Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) programmes such as Remote Sensing for natural resources, Disaster management, Tele-education, Tele-medicine and Village Resource Centres (VRS) as rich examples, he observed that today, India’s core competence in space was its ability to conceive, design, build and operate complex space systems and to use them in various aspects of national development.

Referring Chadrayaan as a fine example of culmination of all space technologies and one of the most prestigious and successful missions of the Indian Space programmes, Chavan said that innovations in space communications and Earth Observations will be used to achieve faster delivery of information to remote areas and finer observation of planet earth.

The day-long workshop has been organised by Astronautical Society of India, ASI, headed by Dr G Madhavan Nair who is also Chairman, ISRO/ Secretary, Department of Space, to commemorate the birth anniversary of the visionary scientist.

Several senior scientists including Member Planning Commission, Dr K Kasturirangan, Secretary, DST, Dr T Ramasami, Secretary,Ministry of Earth Sciences, Dr Shailesh Nayak, former Chairman of ISRO, Prof UR Rao graced the occasion.

On the occasion, the Minister launched the beta version of ISRO’s geoportal “Bhuvan” which he termed as “a powerful tool’.

He also awarded several space scientists with the ASI Annual Awards for the year 2006. The prestigious Aryabhatta Award was given to Promod Kale who is presently with Pune University.

In his address to the gathering, Dr G Madhavan Nair reaffirmed ISRO’s commitment to use space for peaceful purposes and presented a brief on ISRO’s vision for 2050 with the emphasis on Capacity Building, Space Science Mission to better understanding of the planet earth, Development of heavy lift launcher, Unmanned Lunar Exploratory Missions and beyond, Reusable launch vehicle- Technology Demonstration Missions and Human Space Flights.

Emphasising the need for India’s presence on the moon, Dr Nair said that India too is capable of achieving human presence on the moon by 2025. Orbital fly of human, he said, can be achieved by 2015.

Delivering the “Aryabhatta Lecture” on the occasion, Dr PS Goel, Chairman, Recruitment and Assessment Centre, DRDO, spoke about Space and National Security.

Dr K Radhakrishnan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, delivered a talk on Space Transportation System.