The Indian Space Programme

by Gurbir Singh

  Several individuals, including Bert Viz, Professor Praful Bhavsar, Professor U.R. Rao and Jacques Blamont, Dr Aravamudan, Dr G Joseph and others have kindly shared priceless images from their personal archives. Despite my efforts, I have been unable to identify the copyright owners of a few, particularly older, images. I would welcome your assistance in case you are able to identify them.

  The development of India’s space technology is the central theme that connects all chapters of this book. Each chapter, however, is self-standing and can be read independently of the others. Given the focus on rocket technology, space and science, inevitably, there are many technical terms. These are explained in the text or are supported by several appendices, illustrations and particularly the list of abbreviations.

  You will find some element of apparent inconsistency regarding place names. Whereas Madras is now well established as Chennai, Bengaluru as a replacement for Bangalore has been less successful. To further complicate matters, the city names I use depend on the context so you will see both versions of city names in the text. I also noted discrepancies in dates when, for example, launch events in the US or ESA's launch site Kourou in French Guiana are recorded in India. Typically, the dates can be out by a day given the time zones.

  I also regularly found significant variation in the published figures for costs of space missions, the mass of satellites, orbital altitude and other quantitative values. I also found variations in the costs of missions and assets. Thus, they too should be considered approximate given rounding errors and fluctuating exchange rates. I have attempted to represent currency in Indian rupees and US dollars for consistency. The use of lakhs and crores in Indian currency is another challenge for those who do not interact with it on a regular basis. I have added an appendix that captures the fundamental terminology of Indian currency.

  Finally, the views and opinions presented here are my own. The only objective of this book is the one I outlined in the first paragraph. Despite all the cycles of checking and reviews, I can only assume that some errors remain. Responsibility for these lies with me. In case you spot any, do let me know and I will make the necessary correction in a potential future edition.

  Gurbir Singh, Lancashire England, October 2017

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  Chapter One

  Rise of National Space Programmes

  D uring the closing days of World War II, many European cities experienced the terror of death and destruction from rockets. German V1 and V2 rockets landed in many parts of the UK, Belgium and France bringing a new, unfamiliar fear[1]. The first time that British forces experienced this fear of rockets was, however, almost a century and a half earlier in India. On 10 September 1780, Tipu Sultan (1750–1799) of the Kingdom of Mysore in India and his rocket corps inflicted on British forces led by Colonel William Baillie (died 1782) of the British East India Company, what was at the time, their greatest military defeat.

  The Mughal Empire, which had ruled most of India for over two centuries, was in decline by the 17th century, and European powers were competing to replace it.[2] Starting with small trading posts in the 16th century, the French, Portuguese, Dutch and British had established colonies in India through their respective East India companies.[3] The military campaigns were not only between Europeans and Indian rulers but also between the Europeans in India, especially the British and French. The two embarked on a race to rule the post-Mughal India.

  Europeans had been fighting each other in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. By the late 18th century, the UK was in conflict with France on three different continents, America, Africa and India. It was fighting colonists supported by the French in America, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) in Egypt, and Indian states that had aligned militarily with the French in India. By then, France and Britain had honed their respective navies into formidable military machines. A nation’s supremacy at sea was not just a symbol of national pride and wealth, but also a direct measure of its international influence and power, equivalent to a nuclear power status today. For Napoleon, Egypt was a stepping stone to India, where his goal was to disrupt Britain’s presence and eventually replace it with France’s.[4] In the aftermath of the American War of Independence in 1783, Britain, too, looked east to India to regain its global influence. As in North America, France stood in the way.

  Between 1797 and 1798, three brothers arrived in India from Britain. Their collective efforts played a key role in ensuring that Napoleon ambitions failed and that Britain, not France, triumphed in India. Richard Colley Wellesley (1760–1842) arrived as the Governor General of India.[5] His youngest brother, Henry Wellesley (1773–1847), was a career diplomat and officially became his private secretary. Arthur Wellesley (1769–1852) was initially a soldier and later a statesman but found his place in history by defeating Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

  Figure 1‑1 History of Mysore 1617-1799. Credit John Bartholomew & Co. 1897

  Richard Wellesley introduced and vigorously pursued the concept of Subsidiary Alliance, a protection racket dressed up as foreign policy. Subsidiary Alliance assured Indian rulers of British help against external attack or internal revolt. For this to work, the Indian ruler had to align exclusively with Britain with the British veto preventing any future official relationship with other foreign powers, employ a British official at court, expel all non-British European officials, and permanently base British troops within their territory at the cost of the ruler. Wellesley successfully convinced the rulers of several Indian states, including the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Nawab of Oudh, the Raja of Tanjore and the Rajput States, to take up Subsidiary Alliance. With this single measure, Wellesley successfully removed French influence, secured British military presence inside potentially troublesome princely states, asserted and grew British power and generated huge wealth for the British East India Company. However, not everything went to plan. The ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore would not play ball.

  In 1761, an illiterate but gifted military leader Hyder Ali Khan (c.1720–1782) had taken charge as chief minister in the southern Indian city of Mysore. Eventually, he became the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, and in his time, Mysore peaked in its military power. Hyder Ali established strong relationships with the French and Dutch outposts in India providing him access to goods and services through the ports they controlled. In the 1790s, his son Tipu Sultan continued the affiliation and established contact with Napoleon when he arrived in Egypt.[6] Given his fierce anti-colonialist stance, shrewd political insight and efficient governance, Hyder Ali, and later his son Tipu Sultan, fought four wars against the British East India Company to prevent what they saw as foreign rule.

  Tipu Sultan rejected Wellesley’s offer of Subsidiary Alliance. In response, Wellesley offered incentives to the rulers of states neighbouring the Kingdom of Mysore if they helped him acquire it. They would be offered parts of Mysore's territory once it fell to British rule. Tipu Sultan persisted fiercely and continued to oppose the British in Mysore. He resisted breaking ties with the French. Wellesley saw this as a declaration of war, and he proceeded to undermine Tipu Sultan’s alliances through manoeuvres (incentivise Tipu’s supporters to switch sides) similar to those of Robert Clive’s (1725–1774) in 1757 when the latter defeated the Nawab of Bengal in the seminal battle of Plassey. By early 1799 and the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Wellesley was ready to finally defeat Tipu Sultan and acquire the troublesome Kingdom of Mysore. On 4 May 1799, Tipu Sultan was killed during the battle of Srirangapatna (known then as Seringapatam) ending Mysore’s resistance and the series of four Anglo-Mysore Wars between 1767 and 1799. The British East India Company would have triumphed sooner but for the rockets that Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan deployed with surprising effectiveness.

  Tipu’s Rockets

  The invention and early development of rockets and their use in warfare are generally accepted to have taken place in China. In 1232, gunpowder-based rockets were used by the Chinese City of Kaifeng against a 30,000 strong Mongol fo
rce led by the son and successor of Genghis Khan (c. 1162–1227).[7] Marco Polo (1254–1324), a Venetian traveller and merchant, brought a sample of these Chinese war rockets to Europe from his travels in 1275.[8] Versions of these rockets were deployed in European conflicts in the years that followed but with little or no innovation. It was in Mysore under Hyder Ali that rockets were developed into a sophisticated tactical military force for use as an incendiary and anti-personnel weapon.[9] With his extensive experience in military tactics, Hyder Ali effectively used the newly designed war rockets to preserve his rule and extend the Kingdom of Mysore.

  Figure 1‑2 Battle of Pollilur. The Ammunition Cart Exploding in the Middle of the Defensive British Square. A Mural in the Summer Palace, Srirangapatna. Credit Author

  Mysorian rockets were cylindrical, 30 cm in diameter and 60 cm long, with a case made of metal rather than the traditional design using wood or heavy paper. Attaching a sword or a 3 m long bamboo staff provided stability. With a total weight of around 3 kg, it had a range of about 2 km (1.24 miles). The key innovation was the metal casing, which resulted in higher combustion temperature and pressure, increasing the size of the rocket and its range beyond anything that had existed until then. In the 18th century, the highest quality iron available in the world was being manufactured in India. India had a metallurgic tradition going back to the remarkable bronze statues of the 12th-century Cholan civilisation, which had flourished in the same region where Hyder Ali was developing his war rockets.

  Unlike Hyder Ali, Tipu Sultan recorded his military tactics, including the use of rockets. He distributed these tactics in a manual called Fathul Mujahidin to all his officers.[10] In the Second Anglo-Mysore War, Hyder Ali joined the siege in Arcot, and Tipu led the forces at the battle of Pollilur. On 10 September 1780, more than 7,000 British soldiers were held captive at Tipu's fortress in Srirangapatna.[11] A spectacular explosion of the British arsenal resulting possibly from a rocket impact is one of the images depicted in a mural on the walls of the Daria Daulat Bagh, Tipu’s former palace and now a museum.

  On 5 April 1799, in one of the early battles of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, Richard Wellesley’s younger brother Arthur, who later went on to become the Prime Minister of Britain, was almost killed during an ill-prepared night-time encounter with the forces of Tipu Sultan. One vivid account captures the impact on the soldiers experiencing rockets for the first time “Colonel Wellesley, advancing at the height of his regiment, the 33rd, into the tope, was instantly attacked, in the darkness of the night, on every side, by a tremendous fire of musketry and rockets. The men gave way, dispersed and retreated in disorder. Several were killed and twelve grenadiers (these men were all murdered a day or two before the storm) were taken prisoners.”[12]

  Arthur Wellesley’s experience of abject shock and terror was not unique. Many of the troops facing rockets for the first time found the impact to be physically and psychologically profound even though they were battle hardened with the experience of numerous military encounters. Colonel Baillie describes his experience as the rockets approached “The rockets and musketry from 20,000 of the enemy were incessant. No hail could be thicker. Every illumination of blue lights was accompanied by a shower of rockets, some of which entered the head of the column, passing through to the rear, causing death, wounds, and dreadful lacerations from the long bamboos…”.[13]

  During the last three decades of the 18th century, Hyder Ali and his son, Tipu Sultan, bolstered their military with a contingent of rocket men, initially 1,200 and later strengthened to 5,000 men.[14] Tipu Sultan succeeded his father, Hyder Ali, following his death in 1782, and he was British East India Company’s most formidable and tenacious adversary “a fanatical and relentless warrior, he vowed not to mount his elaborate throne until he had vanquished the British.”[15] With the help of his French military connections, Tipu imported industrial technology from Europe and also introduced silk production in Mysore with help from China. He continued his father’s tradition of developing rocket technology and training his men on how best to deploy rockets to meet a military objective. Mobile structures on wheels capable of launching multiple rockets at a time introduced greater tactical agility. Tipu’s rocket men honed their targeting skills by calculating the angle of launch based on the distance to the target and the diameter of the rocket. The metal blades and bamboo shafts spun at high speed like uncontrolled scythes. Sometimes, a rocket would either explode or burn slowly, increasing the unpredictability of its impact.

  During the four Anglo-Mysore Wars, state-of-the-art military rocket technology was deployed against the British East India Company. However, Srirangapatna was overrun eventually on 4 May 1799, and Tipu Sultan lay dead. As victorious soldiers of the British East India Company searched the extended area of Srirangapatna, they located 600 launchers, 700 serviceable rockets and 9,000 empty cases.[16] Some of these found their way to London, and another father and son team, both called William Congreve, systematically developed these rockets from Mysore, enhancing their range, size, reliability and thus military effectiveness.[17]

  Rockets and Empire

  In the second half of the 18th century, Britain’s expanding empire made increasing demands on its military infrastructure to support its imperial ambitions around the world. The Royal Arsenal located on the banks of River Thames in south-east London was established in the late 17th century to develop and test ordnance and artillery. Tipu’s rockets from Mysore ended up at the Royal Arsenal, and the journey of rocketry development in Europe began.

  Initially known as the Woolwich Warren, the Royal Arsenal was developed into a large, sophisticated complex for research and development (R&D), as well as the manufacture of high-grade weapons. It had its own laboratory, foundry, storehouse and a permanent base for army engineers. On 15 May 1778, Colonel William Congreve (1743–1814) was appointed as the Superintendent of Military Machines on a salary of 101 pounds and 25 shillings per year. His remit was to “improve the science and practice of artillery.”[18] In April 1783, as the Anglo-Mysore Wars raged in India, William Congreve was appointed as the Deputy Comptroller[19] of the Royal Arsenal, and in 1789 as the Comptroller, to test and develop high-grade gunpowder for Britain.

  Congreve introduced a series of innovations to the traditional practices in the Arsenal’s production of weapons. Instead of bringing in the private sector as advocated by the prime minister, he introduced new lean working practices, refined quality control, put in place a rigorous testing regime, reduced management layers and increased the number of government sites for gunpowder production in the north and south of London. Using the processes and procedures that emerged from the Industrial Revolution, Colonel Congreve established systems and procedures for the efficient and cost-effective production of military ordnance. He transformed the Royal Arsenal into an economic centralised system of armament production operated by the state’s officials under his new vision.[20] Upon his death in 1814, Congreve Senior’s role was passed on to his son William Congreve Junior (1772–1828). Both Williams received a baronetcy and a knighthood during their lifetimes and were formally known as Sir William Congreve 1st Baronet and Sir William Congreve 2nd Baronet.

  Figure 1‑3 Congreve rocket fired at Stonington in August 1814. Credit Stonington Historical Society

  Congreve Junior was a colourful character in history. Having studied law, mathematics and chemistry, he went into politics editing a Conservative Party Newspaper, The Royal Standard and turned to inventing after a damaging libel action. Living most of his adult life with his mistress and producing two illegitimate sons, he eventually married in 1824. Later in life, he became a businessman, and in 1818, he returned to politics, successfully standing as MP for Plymouth. Accused of fraud, he fled to France, where he died in 1828 bringing an ignominious end to a very creative and productive life. During his lifetime, he recorded 18 patents, two of which were associated with rockets: whale harpoons and flares to light up a battlefield and flares for signalling. His most endu
ring design, however, is of the unforgeable bank note, which is still in use around the world today.[21]

  The new lean environment of the Royal Arsenal was the perfect setting for Congreve Junior to begin enhancing the technical capability of Tipu Sultan’s rockets when they arrived in London following Tipu’s defeat at Srirangapatna in 1799. With the support of his father, he conducted experiments to investigate their performance. In his 1985 paper, Narasimha Roddam (born 1933) of the National Aeronautical Laboratory and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore describes what took place then as “a vigorous research and development programme”.[22] Using his understanding of science and chemistry, Congreve Junior systematically analysed the composition of propellants and trajectories using Newton’s laws of gravitation and recorded the characteristics of varying sizes of rockets weighing 12, 32 and 42 pounds (6, 16 and 21 kg).[23]

  Figure 1‑4 Sir William Congreve Second Baronet. Circa 1812. Credit James Lonsdale

  He meticulously investigated all aspects of military rocket case design, production methods, cost and practical use in the field. His innovations included new formulations in the manufacture of gun powder, black powder, and warhead design. He developed explosive and incendiary devices with timer fuse, an efficient and fast mechanism for attaching the stabilising stick and a new collapsible light-weight wooden launching frame that could fire volleys of 20 or 50 rockets once every 30 seconds to replace the prevailing heavy-wheeled carriages.[24]