Sriharikota is a barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It houses the Satish Dhawan Space Centre First Launch Pad, one of the two satellite launch centers in India with the other being the Thumba Equatorial rocket launching station in Thiruvananthapuram. Indian Space Research Organisation launch satellites using multistage rockets such as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota
In his first trip to the south after he assumed office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Chennai on Sunday on a special aircraft enroute to Sriharikota to witness the launch of ISRO’s PSLV C-23 rocket on 30th June, 2014.
PSLV C23 is scheduled to lift off at 9.52 am on Monday with 714 kg weighing French Earth Observation Satellite SPOT-7, 14 kg AISAT of Germany, NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) & NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) of Canada each weighing 15 kg and the 7 kg VELOX-1 of Singapore.
Sriharikota Launching Range, the centre was renamed in 2002 after the death of ISRO's former chairman prof Satish Dhawan.
Sriharikota island was chosen in 1969 for a satellite launching station. The centre became operational 1971
The first attempted launch of an orbital satellite, Rohini 1A aboard a Satellite Launch Vehicle, took place 10 Aug 1979, but due to a failure in thrust vectoring of the rocket's second stage, the satellite's orbit decayed 19 Aug 1979.
Since then technical, logistic and administrative infrastructure have been enhanced. Together with the northerly Balasore Rocket Launching Station, the facilities are operated under the ISRO Range Complex (IREX) headquartered at SHAR
The Prime Minishter gave an uplifting speech in English as well as Hindi. His vision of India shone through his words, and a SAAARC satellite he hoped would be lauched from here, bringing the befefits of modern technolgy to the whole of South Asia, and perhaps this will be a turning point in the hisotry of this region, where suspician will be replaced with trust and bring hope and good life to the millions living in this area in abject poverty for so many centuries.
Mangalorean Recipes joins the Prime Minister in this hope for better days. He said he was born after we got independence, and I was 13 yars old when that happened. I sincerely hope for better days for all my countrymen and that we will live in increased understanding of one another and leave our prejudices behind and work as one body and one mind.
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