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Aryabhatta: a look back after 50 years
It needs to be noted especially by younger generation that Aryabhatta alone still represents a pinnacle of massive, sustained, innovative, synchronized, coordinated and managed scientific engineering effort and in a challenging environment with usually limited resources.
Aryabhatta, India’s first Satellite / Wikipedia
Aryabhatta– India’s first Satellite, takes its name from a great Indian sage mathematician -whose name was mostly lost in history books to the general public, until this satellite launch in the year 1975, from of all places – India! Among others -it instantly transformed an image of an ancient India still running on bullock carts and old villages -catapulting it into the “Space Age”! However -the global scientific community largely -still did not understand then that this was no flash-in-the-pan achievement or a lucky event- so to say, while luck would perhaps played a minor part due to the mind boggling number of variables!
While British India had fundamentally truncated and subdued the intelligentsia in the country gradually, systematically and with utmost planning- for almost two centuries, many of the technocrats and leadership in the UK, have known that India was a sleeping giant- just like the United States.
Interestingly, Sanskrit -an ancient Indian language but extraordinarily powerful in a scientificsense, can be considered one among many reasons, that has contributed to the immense contributions of Indian scientists in the realm of Science and Technology to this day. It may interest the global Indian diaspora- that this aspect of the language has been recognized by none other than Elon Musk, a global name compared with the likes of Albert Einstein (and also Thomas Jefferson one among the earliest legendary distinguished Presidents of America.).
In current context this is a relevant point also noted at the US Space Command and also in exploration of the Solar System including manned Mars missions and Moon missions internationally. While people have deeply divided and strong opinions of Elon Musk, it is important to note his immense contributions to Science and Technology, also encompasses a significant depth of hands-on knowledge of manufacturing engineering– almost a lost art these days in America. Even the eminent late Ratan Tata of the global conglomerate Tata Group, of India, had incidentally also commented on this aspect of Elon Musk, after touring one of his plants on a personally guided tour.
Post Aryabhatta, coming to 50 years (1975 to 2025)- of a steady stream of significantly noteworthy progress in the world of satellite technologies from India (ISRO) - and truly original globally noted accomplishments (Parked satellite closes to the sun in the Solar system; 2024– 1st Moon landing on the South pole or far side of the moon, discovery of water on the moon etc..2023.) obviously this was no “flash-in-the-pan” achievements.
Eminent globally recognized Indian leaders i.e. ISRO chairmen, from legendary ISRO founder late Dr.Vikram Sarabhai, late Dr. U R Rao, Professor Dr. Satish Dhawan, Dr. Kasturirangan, Dr. A S Kiran Kumar, etc. etc. have carried on the tradition of superexcellence in an unbroken succession of perhaps epoch making events, since the landmark Aryabhatta, was successfully hurled into orbit in 1975.
It needs to be noted especially by younger generation that Aryabhatta alone still represents a pinnacle of massive, sustained, innovative, synchronized, coordinated and managed scientific engineering effort and in a challenging environment with usually limited resources.
Such success is no accident (Quality is never an accident!)- i.e. highly skilled experts with deep-knowledge of multiple engineering fields-from Controls Systems, Semiconductor Micro-electronics to Metallurgy, fabrication, thermo-mechanical systems integration etc. in addition to sheer mathematical computational skills- have played crucial roles in its success!
It is has been my privilege to have personally met and been influenced by several of these legendary scientists and nation builders of India. In closing- I wish to place on record -my high regards and hearty congratulations, to the eminent project head of Aryabhatta - Dr. KRS Murthy, PhD., known to me personally, who has since then also led many successful efforts at NASA and much more.
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