Story of Rohini : India’s First Satellite

PC: ISRO

On July 18, 1980, India successfully launched Rohini Satellite (Codenamed RS-1) by  indigenous launch vehicle SLV-3. With this, India entered an exclusive club of the space-faring nations who were capable of launching a satellite in low earth orbit. The countries who already had this capability were

  • Erstwhile USSR (Sputnik-I launched by Sputnik-PS on Oct  4, 1957)
  • USA (Explorer-I launched by Juno-1 on Jan  31, 1958)
  • France (Asterix launched by Diamant A on Nov  26, 1965)
  •  Japan (Osumi launched by Lambda 4S on Feb  11, 1970)
  • China ( (Dongfanghong-I launch by Chang Zheng-1 on Apr 24, 1970))

Not many know, but the success or Rohini was less about the Rohini itself, but more about the launch Vehicle which took it into the orbit, the SLV-3.  Rohini as a satellite had a very limited capabilities. Its chief objective was to monitor the launch vehicle it was riding on. Just to mention Rohini is not the first satellite India build. The first satellite build was Aryabhatta, but it was launched by Kosmos-3M launch vehicle by erstwhile USSR,  on Apr 19, 1975. The quest of having our own launch vehicle took scientists to Rohini.

The success in July 1980 didn’t come easily. In fact the the Rohini (RS-1) was  preceded by a failed attempt to launch Rohini Technology Payload (RTP) in Aug 1979. The little story  goes like this”

On Aug 10 1979, at 8.48 AM, it was a clear morning in Sriharikota island in Andhra Pradesh. The mighty, 17 tons, four stage SLV-3 took off flawlessly from Sri Harikota Range (SHAR). The first stage functioned as expected. In flight, after 28 seconds and at the height of 23km, the 2nd stage control system developed a serious snag. It struggled to climb further up. The vehicle deviated from its trajectory and started coming down. It crashed into Bay of Bengal, at T+317 seconds, about 560km south-east of SHAR. Dr. Kalam, who was leading the team of scientists, described it as, ‘It is something like a pleasant dream suddenly turning into a frightening nightmare!

Dr. Kalam and Prof Dhawan accompanying SLV-3 to launch pad.(pc ISRO)

Later, investigation revealed that the problem developed due to a faulty valve in the upper stages. Even though the SLV-3 failed to put the satellite in orbit, overall 34 subsystems our of 44 total worked as expected. Hence, it was termed as “Partial Success“.  Later during the press conference, Prof. Satish Dhavan, chairman ISRO, took all the blame and shielded his team lead by project director Dr. Kalam.

The failure did not daunt the  scientists. With govt firmly behind them, exactly 11 months  later, at 8.03 AM on July 18, 1980, the SLV-3 blasted off from Sriharikota with a 35-kg satellite Rohini successfully placed it in low earth orbit. It was culmination of a decade long effort, a vision from Vikram Sarabhai, beginning from Saint Mary Magdalene church in a humble Kerala fishing village Thumba.  Post successful launch of Rohini in 1980, exemplifying leadership, Prof Dhawan, gave all the credit to his team and Dr. Kalam.

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