Inside Sriharikota, where the ‘last-mile’ activity of Indian space programme unfolds

Sriharikota is connected to the mainland by a single 3-metre road. Running straight across the Pulicat lake, it was built keeping the eco-sensitive surroundings intact. Under 20 minutes on the virtually empty road, the bus drives past a marble signboard on the right side embossed with golden letters — Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota — in Hindi and English. A minute later, the SHAR’s main entrance — its colossal spaceship and three models of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launch vehicles mark an entry into the high-security facility — is visible.

Responsible for providing launch base infrastructure for the country’s space programme, the centre was originally called the Sriharikota Launching Range. It got its current name in 2002, after the death of ISRO’s former chairperson, Satish Dhawan. Nearly 55 years after the centre was founded, the secluded, spindle-shaped island of Sriharikota has become an integral part of ISRO, housing the country’s sophisticated spaceport (a strategic site for launching spacecrafts).

The entrance to Sriharikota, India’s spaceport. (Photo: credit: ISRO)

Recently, the Cabinet approved a third launch pad with an economic outlay of Rs. 3,984.86 crore. This facility will be integral for launching the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) and Gaganyaan missions. The approval for the establishment of the third launch pad came on the day when ISRO successfully demonstrated the satellite docking part of the SpaDex mission.

The ‘Rocket Boys’ look for a new site

The journey of India’s space programme began in the 1960s. At that time, the “Rocket Boys” — India’s space programme pioneer Vikram Sarabhai and his team — were in the throes of setting up a sounding rocket facility in Thumba, Kerala. The facility was meant to study the magnetic equator for projectiles that carry scientific instruments into space — seminal work that would have an impact on global radio communication.

The mid-1960s saw Thumba emerge as a space science and technology centre, complete with a rocket propellent plant, rocket fabrication facility and more. Looking at a steady increase in the number of sounding rockets launched from the Kerala coast, it dawned on Sarabhai that they needed to expand existing launch facilities.

Since the Earth’s rotation offered a natural and additional impetus while launching rockets, Sarabhai asked his students, E V Chitnis and U R Rao, to locate a suitable site along the east coast for expansion. At this site, they would establish a facility to launch bigger rockets into both the Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where satellites at an altitude of 160-2,000 km speed at 7.8 km per second to take high-resolution imaging, and the Geosynchronous Orbits (GEO), where satellites located at an altitude of 35,786 km appear stationary since they travel at speed of Earth’s rotation, and are used for telecommunication and weather monitoring.

The first launch pad ready ahead of the August 16, 2024, launch at SHAR. (Photo: credit: ISRO)

Traversing a treacherous 20-km stretch — riding multiple jeeps through the thick jungle, and across the Buckingham Canal and Pulicat lake — team Sarabhai’s search for India’s dream lift-off into space ended at the Sriharikota beach, which overlooks the mighty Bay of Bengal. In a breakfast meeting facilitated by a Sullurupeta church to finalise the land transfer deal, the team met with Andhra Pradesh government officials.

Notorious for barrelling severe cyclones towards India’s east coast, the Bay of Bengal has been a witness to ISRO’s rocket launches for over five decades now. Besides being a boon to the country’s space programme, the Indian Ocean in the Bay of Bengal offers a vast “safe zone” to ISRO, which is also setting up India’s second spaceport in Tamil Nadu’s Kulasekarapattinam, around 300 km away down the same coast. In February 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation for constructing the spaceport in the coastal Tamil Nadu town. In two years, the facility is expected to facilitate an annual launch of nearly 24 Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), capable of carrying payloads (micro, mini or small satellites weighing under 500 kg ), up to 500 km into the LEO orbit.

Back at SHAR, visitors are frisked by an armed Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel, who verifies the official entry passes and hops on the bus for the short drive into ISRO’s largest centre in the country. At SHAR, all facilities are located a few kilometres apart and the security drill — a thorough check at every entrance — repeats at each entry point.

To the left of the first roundabout inside SHAR is a stretch that includes the Aryabhatta and Antariksh Bhavans, the main guest house complexes, and housing quarters for its 3,000-odd staff members and their families. Almost all housing quarters — their neat stone signboards bearing engraved house numbers that make it extremely difficult to get lost — have a car parked outside. This road ends at the lone school for the children of SHAR employees, the Space Central School, that has been operating since 1973.

Future-ready at Sriharikota

SHAR is where the Indian space programme’s “last-mile” activity unfolds. Simply put, all the components required for a launch — from the vehicle to payloads, among others — are received, checked, assembled and tested before being mounted onto the launch pad.

In his first-floor office, located in the high-security administrative building, A Rajarajan, director, SHAR, studies a file on the then proposed third space port. He tells The Indian Express, “SHAR provides an infrastructure facility, which is always kept ready to facilitate launches at a designated time. This is in addition to specific requirements based on the mission or the vehicle.”

While fine-tuning and upgrading of infrastructure is an ongoing process, a lot of groundwork is underway at Sriharikota to make it “future-ready”.

The Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR). (Photo: credit: ISRO)

“For advanced and efficient vehicles of the future, there is a need to build matching launching facilities. While preparations for regular missions will be an ongoing activity at SHAR, there will be an overhaul in both the ground systems and launch vehicle systems necessary to accommodate the next generation of launch vehicles,” says Rajarajan.

There is a flurry of activities underway for Gaganyaan, India’s ongoing project to send a three-day manned mission to LEO with a crew of three. The uncrewed Gaganyaan 1 mission is gearing for launch in 2025.

SHAR’s two launch pads have been operational since 1993 and 2005 respectively. Since September 1993, the first launch pad has facilitated 50 launches. Officials say establishing a launch pad set-up to suit launches of multiple vehicle types is a long-drawn exercise that can take up to six years to reach fruition.

Today, SHAR is capable of launching up to six Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLVs), which are expendable medium-lift launch vehicles, annually in a year. Nearly two years ago, SHAR made a “record-breaking” 10 launches across vehicle types in a year.

SHAR is also always in “gearing up” mode to facilitate mandated ground support: supply chain, fuel storage (solid, liquid and cryogenic), along with the maintenance and servicing of their storage facilities, performing final checks and tests of all supporting equipments and components ahead of the final assembly onto the launch pad, and training manpower to complete these tasks with highest precision and on time.

“It is possible to do 10-12 PSLV launches, both strategic or commercial, from one launch pad with a gap of 25-26 days. Since the requirement now is to launch many satellites with a short turnaround time, we are working to achieve that at Kulasekarapattinam,” Rajarajan says.

A. Rajarajan, director, SHAR. (Photo: credit: ISRO)

With multiple key operational launch programmes lined up at SHAR in the coming years, this new launch pad will be a game changer for heavier missions, including the manned Gaganyaan mission. SHAR, along other ISRO centres, has been strategically chalking out every nuance of India’s first manned-mission since 2018.

ISRO is among the most powerful space agencies in the world today, with demonstrated expertise on missions planned and executed at unimaginable costs and, in some cases, tasting success on its maiden attempt. The successful satellite docking on January 16 has put ISRO on the fourth position globally, after the US, Russia and China.

Having spent nearly a decade in developing a single launch vehicle, ISRO is now working to cut delivery time in half. Besides training personnel for its future missions, among ISRO’s zealous plans include some key mission: Chandrayaan 4 (to collect and retrieve lunar rock samples to Earth); Gaganyaan 1, 2 and 3 (to send and test a space crew model, a model with a humanoid onboard Gaganyaan 1 and ultimately sending and bringing back safely an Indian from space); interplanetary missions (including one to Venus) and establishment of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (on the lines of the International Space Station).

Less than 500 metres from the main entrance is a checkpoint, which resembles a highway toll booth. The entry into the heart of the spaceport, which houses facilities including a 22-storey space vehicle assembly building, two launch pads, range operations, control and solid motor performance testing, propellent characterisation and quality control, the telemetry and tracking, range operations, fuel storage, among others.

Even the ode to Satish Dhawan, the eminent rocket scientist who led ISRO after Sarabhai’s death in 1971, is connected to rockets and science — a roundabout with his black bust in the centre is known as Zero Point. Once the launch pad is readied for a lift-off, human entry into areas beyond the Zero Point is prohibited.

An island and the mighty blue ocean

SHAR is an island full of lush green forests and the mighty blue ocean all around. The only occasional concrete structures visible from the terrace are the radar and office buildings, the decommissioned APJ Abdul Kalam launch pad (named in the honour of the former President and scientist) and an on-field test facility that was used for the Chandrayaan 3 lander tests. Capable of keeping the sun’s searing heat in check, the continuous bursts of wind are a welcome soothing.

Of the vast 43,360 acres (175 sq km) of land with ISRO in Sriharikota, officials say just under 2% (about 860 acres) is occupied by buildings at present. Shrubs and thick forests cover the rest of the land, they say. Over the past 50 years, the forests have grown “at least three times thicker”, thanks to ISRO’s continuous plantation drives: casuarina, eucalyptus, other trees and some shrubs of medicinal value. Though the weather in Sriharikota is excessively hot and windy all year, these plants grow, and thrive here, besides acting as a natural wind barrier for the island.

Based on the findings of a long-term study by Chennai-based National Centre for Coastal Research, the shores of Sriharikota were found to be facing the threat of erosion. SHAR is now in the process of laying a groyne system, a 100-m strip to prevent erosion of sand. “Environmental clearance has been obtained and work will be executed in a manner that does not affect the local habitat,” says Rajarajan. Officials add that buildings here are designed to withstand winds with speeds of up to 240 km per hour.

A jetty and an airstrip

In recent years, when heavy rain would pound the island, the lone road between the mainland and SHAR would get submerged, cutting off all access to the island spaceport for a day or two. Severe cyclones and sudden bursts of rainfall, in recent years, have also become a cause for worry.

Officials say the lone connecting road feels narrower now, with each launch vehicle and rocket system growing in size over the years. “We are looking at alternate ways to mitigate this problem. An elevated roadway or an alternate road without harming Pulicat lake is under consideration. A very wide road cannot be built here since it will interfere with the natural flow of the lake,” says Rajarajan.

Also in the pipeline are future requirements, including a jetty for local transport and an airstrip, among others. In advanced stages of development or testing are trials for test vehicles, integrated air drop test, pad abort tests, triple model redundancies, checkout systems, crew module preparation, crew escape systems, mode to transport the vehicle to launch pad, zip lines for transporting crew to safe and specialised bunkers, bubble lift allowing crew for a quick escape, fuel servicing lines and more.

Another upcoming amenity for the crew is a special room, where the final check of the Ganganyatris’ suit, just before they enter the vehicle, will be done.

As the sun starts to set, walkers and joggers come out of the quarters and guest houses to trot nearby in intermittent bouts. By evening, the children’s park and the Kamakshi temple on the SHAR premises are full of ISRO residents, young and old. Excited shouts from school children cycling and playing cricket near their school keep the space young. The centre’s shuttle bus service ferries employees and their families on campus and to Sullurupeta. The shuttle’s timings are displayed prominently at all bus stops. As the sun sets and ISRO is at the cusp of a well-deserved break, songs from the temple and the television set in the restaurant near the school fill the breezy evening.