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Episode 62: Vikram Sarabhai

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Amrita Shah

Vikram Sarabhai  is unanimously accepted across India as the “father” of its space program. Not really known well outside India, he died suddenly and prematurely at age of 52 in 1971. He had studied cosmic ray physics and gained his PHD from Cambridge in 1947 the same year India became an independent nation.  He spent the rest of his life implementing a vision that the prosperity of India and all of its people lay in science. The scientific institutions he built still play key role in India today. Convincing the Indian population that they had the intellectual capacity to rebuild India with their own hands is perhaps his lasting legacy.

The most scholarly biography on his eventful life is Vikram Sarabhai – A life by Amrita Shah. A review of the book is available here. This episode is a recording with Amrita Shah conducted fittingly at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, where Vikram Sarabhai studied physics under C V Raman who in 1930 had won the Nobel Prize for physics.

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Episode 53: 28th June 2012 – The Chinese Space program

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Qian Xuesen

Even a cursory look at the Chinese spacecraft design indicates a close, obvious connection between Chinese and Soviet space technology. No doubt a result of the close geography and a shared political ideology during the Soviet era.

In this episode, a space historian specialising in the Chinese and Soviet/Russian space programs outlines the history, current status, and future of Chinese space activities.

Brian Harvey is a Dublin-based writer, author, broadcaster and probably the most informed specialist on the Chinese space program in Ireland today. This conversation was recorded during the Shenzhou-9/Tiangong-1 mission, which orbited Earth with three crew members, including the first Chinese female astronaut, onboard. At the end of the interview, Brian talks about the Space Cooperation Memorandum signed last week.

This telephone interview was recorded on Tuesday, 26th June, and published today, one day before the scheduled return of Shenzhou-9.

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Episode 51: 5th June 2012: Profile – Author David Shayler

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David Shayler. Credit https://www.astroinfoservice.co.uk/

David Shayler is one such author for me. During the Space Day event in Droitwich earlier this year, organised by the British Interplanetary Society West Midlands branch, I finally got to meet David. This is a short recording of our conversation I recorded then.

Incidentally, David is the main organiser of the British Interplanetary Society’s annual Soviet Chinese Forum taking place at the BIS headquarters in London on Saturday, 9th June. A PDF of the program for the day is available online here.

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