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Award winning Book – India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer

By Gurbir Dated: November 24, 2021 Leave a Comment

Stephen H Smith
India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer Stephen H Smith From Pigeonmail to Rocketmail

Delighted to see that my book “India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer” has been awarded the “Large Silver Award” by the Christchurch (New Zealand) Philatelic Society.

Singh, Gurbir (United Kingdom) LARGE SILVER AWARD for India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer

https://www.cps.gen.nz/page/442611

This was one of many entries in the 17th New Zealand National Philatelic Literature Exhibition in the Class A — Books & Monographs category on 20th November 2021. The CPS is one of the oldest philatelic organisations (founded in 1911) and has remained active since. More about the CPS here.

This book is the story of Stephen Smith who worked alone and unsupported between 1934 and 1944 on developing rockets as a method of transport. He demonstrated that that rockets could be used to transports food, mail, medicines and even livestock.

Smith tried to engage the (first British) Indian Government and after Independent India’s government but without avail. We wrote to the chief minister of Bengal and Nehru himself but got no response.

One of his longest lasting relationship was with Dr Robert Paganini in Switzerland. They correspond for over 25 years. Although they never met, when Paganini died in 1950, he left a quarter of his wealth to Smith. Smith died just 3 months later in February 1951.

More about this book – two podcasts where I answer questions

  • 10 July 2020. Interplanetary Podcast. India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer.
  • 19 June 2020. New Space India Podcast. India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer.

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India In Space

By Gurbir Dated: April 28, 2021 Leave a Comment

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle

There are around 3000 operational satellites around Earth right now. Just over 50 were designed, built and launched from India. Collectively they provide services for communication, television, navigation and Earth observation. In the pursuit of science, India has Astrosat, a space telescope in Earth orbit, Chandrayaan-2 in lunar orbit and India’s first mission to Mars, launched in 2013 is still providing data almost a decade on.

The Indian Space programme started 21st November 1963 with the launch of the first rocket into space from Indian soil. Since then, India has developed a comprehensive infrastructure to design, build, launch and operate spacecraft in orbit. Why did India choose such a seemingly impossible path for a developing nation just a decade and a half after independence?

There are three primary reasons. First, Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister, had a very clear vision of India’s future forged on the anvil of science and technology. Second, a coincidence of timing – the space age arrived (with the launch of Sputnik in 1957) on his watch. India could have chosen the road for economic development that the West had traversed since the industrial revolution, or leap headlong into the 20th century and join the space race, a race in which the West was ahead but not by very much. Third, the commitment of a few accomplished scientists and intellectually gifted who had the commitment and potential to realise Nehru’s bold ambitions of an India with a vibrant, flourishing first world economy.

India built on science and technology

Jawaharlal Nehru

Despite his public adherence to the rituals and tradition of the faith that Nehru was born into, he considered himself more a Humanist than a Hindu. In his will he declared he did not want “any religious ceremonies performed for me after my death”. He embedded his vision of a forward-looking, science based future of India in the constitution. In Article 51A of the Constitution of India, which came into effect in 1950, Nehru codified the central role of science, requiring that every citizen of India shall “develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform”.

The tradition of scientific investigation was well established in India long before the British arrived. During the three hundred years of British occupation, science conducted in India was the science that only benefited Britain. Despite these restrictions, the practice of science by Indians in India, during the colonial period, made some progress. 

Pioneers in Science

CV Raman Credit IISc

In 1894 JC Bose demonstrated the potential for radio communication by triggering an explosion of a small sample of gunpowder using radio waves.  In 1918, with Albert Einstein’s consent,  SN Bose published the first English translation of Albert Einstein’ s landmark work on General Relativity in Calcutta. Bose’s contribution is recognised in Physics today through the Bose-Einstein Condensate and the Boson.  

By the age of 42, CV Raman who had been educated and trained entirely in India, was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1924, knighted by the British government in 1929 and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

Origins of India’s Space Programme

In the summer of 1939, Homi Bhabha was visiting India prior to starting a new role at the University of Manchester, England. Then WW2 broke out.  Bhabha remained in India and developed the Atomic Energy Commission and in 1962 the Indian National Committee for Space Research and put Vikram Sarabhai in charge. Both Bhabha and Sarabhai came from successful business families known across India. They had also studied Physics in Cambridge. It was these connections in high society in India and amongst the international scientific community that Vikram Sarabhai exploited in growing the international collaboration that was critical for India to jut-start its space programme from a standing start.

International Collaboration

The Cold War forced many countries to choose between the democratic capital West and the Communist East. Despite the geopolitical bifurcation between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, Nehru ensured India took no side and remained Non-aligned. Sarabhai exploited this position further by attracting support for the nascent Indian space programme from USSR, France, USA and Britain. It was this step-by-step progress by which Sarabhai ensured Indian space scientists and engineers acquired hands-on experience working abroad, then built spacecraft and launch vehicles under license in India before gradually becoming fully self-reliant in space. 

The Indian Space Research Organisation was established in 1969. Today ISRO is recognised as a leading operator in space. Launched in 2007, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 mission to the Moon was probably the  most challenging and successful mission to date. It took place in an age before social media and does not have the recognition it deserves. It carried instruments from USA, Japan, Sweden, Bulgaria and UK. It was this mission that made the first unequal detection of huge quantities of water near the lunar south pole. ISRO today has active collaboration projects with other leading space agencies. They include:

  • Roscosmos – India announced its human spaceflight mission Gaganyaan in 2018. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has been providing astronaut training for four Indian astronauts since 2019. The first crew carrying flight could take place in 2022.
  • NASA – NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR). A global Synthetic Aperture Radar mission to  study changes in glaciers and other hazards such as sea level rises. To be launched in 2022.
  • JAXA – Lunar Polar Exploration Mission (LUPEX)A joint India-Japan mission to the South pole of the Moon. Japan to provide the launcher and rover and India would contribute the lunar lander (that will carry the rover to the surface). Currently scheduled for 2024.
  • India also plays a part on the global stage by participating in (a) United Nations Inter-Agency Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) with an objective to mitigate space debris generated by member agencies (b) comply with international law as a signatory to the 1967 The Outer Space Treaty, (c) provide transponders in GEO and LEO satellites to support  satellite-based international search and rescue (COSPAS-SARSAT) service (d) Voluntarily engage in data sharing with other space faring nations using the Multi-Object Tracking Radar based at Sriharikota

Space programmes around the world have been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. ISRO has been impacted more than the most. Globally, 102 space launches were conducted in 2019, six of which were from India. This year, out of a global total of 114, India conducted two. During the space race of the 1960s between USA and USSR, an advance by one side triggered a response from the other. In 2019, China with  34 launches was ahead. In 2020 it was second with 39 launches. India will no doubt increase its launch cadence in 2021.

Coming Soon

Mars. Credit Isro

In addition to its recent success navigation constellation NAViC, science mission and progress with the Human Spaceflight programme, ISRO is actively pursuing additional objectives. In 2021 ISRO will conduct its first commercial launch of its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle,  the second launch of the Reusable Launch Vehicle and another attempt to land on the Moon with Chandrayaan-3.

Before the middle of the current decade, ISRO will have launched  the first Indian astronauts to reach Earth orbit using an Indian launch vehicle from Indian soil,  a solar probe to observe the Sun – Aditya-L1, a second mission to Mars – Manglayaan-2 and the first mission to Venus – Shukrayaan-1.

First published in the March-April 2021 edition of Gyan Vitaranam

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Presentation Slides 18 July 2020

By Gurbir Dated: July 18, 2020 Leave a Comment

The BIS-WM branch organised a live presentation today (18 July 2020) using Zoom. Thanks to all at BIS-WM for organising and all of you who joined. I said I would share the links and slides.

1. Astrotalkuk.org – Episode 68 from 2014. Archive material from March 2020.
2. Look inside the book.
3. Purchase book. Use  33% discount code = YYFEP4D during checkout only on this link. If in India then use Pothi.com
4. Indian Airmails.com – Piyush Khaitan. Other useful links.
5. British Interplanetary Society


Click for the presentation in pdf format

Download the slides used in the presentation in pdf format. The video of the recording will be made available soon. All those who registered will be notified by email when it is available online.


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Episode 91 – ISRO and the Spy who was not

By Gurbir Dated: November 15, 2019 Leave a Comment

Nambi Narayan

One of the most fascinating and colourful characters associated with the Indian Space Programme is Narayan Nambi.

In 1994, Nambi Narayanan an ISRO aerospace engineer was falsely arrested by the Investigation Beuro on charges of espionage. He was accused of passing on confidential launch vehicle flight test data to foreign nationals. In 1996 he was cleared by the Central Investigations Bureau and India’s Supreme Court found him not guilty in 1998. In 2019 he was presented with India’s third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.

In 1966 he joined ISRO or INCOSPAR as it was known at that time. With the guidance and support of Vikram Sarabhai, he went to study liquid and cryogenic engine technology at Princeton in 1969. He worked on the early stages of the development of the Vikas liquid engine which now powers two of the four stages of the PSLV.

Some of the topics we discussed include:

  • During the 1960s he visited the Spadadam site near Carlisle. Today it is a Royal Airforce Station but in the 1960s it was the site used by the British Government test rocket engines and to develop Blue Streak – an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile.
  • In 1974 ISRO concluded a barter arrangement – no money changed hands. India would provide 100 man-years trained engineers. 75% of this time would towards supporting France developing their (then new)  Ariane 1 launcher and 25% would be used by India to develop the Vikas Engine with the technology transfer from France. Indian engineers would also build, test and qualify 100,000 pressure transducers for France.
  • He claims to be the architect of this unique barter arrangement. In addition to being the father and architect of the PSLV.
  • He suspects that the intelligence Beuro picked on him to slow down the Cryogenic engine development and remove him as project director.
  • Speculating on the why the Vikram lander failed to make a soft landing he thinks it may have been related to the automatic landing sequence (software) or an issue with the braking thrusters.
    He is an advocate of an Asian Space Agency lead by India.
    He believes China space programme is not ahead of India’s because India has succeeded with the Mars Orbiter Mission.
    He would like India and China to increase collaboration in space.
    In 2017, he published a book on his experiences and a film based on the book will be released in late 2019.
https://media.blubrry.com/astrotalkuk_podcast_feed/astrotalkuk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Episode-91-Nambi-Narayan.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:52 — 67.9MB) | Embed

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