Bible Space: The India Story For the veteran scientist journalist Dansh Sharma describes, in an attractive way, the space odyssey of India, although it is not exactly a chronicle of seven decades of the trip.
The author has divided the book into two parts: ‘India in space’ and ‘Indians in space’, the beats discussing three Indians who have been there, – Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. The book has its positive and negative aspects.
The origins
First, the positive ones. The book is a lot of information. In the first chapter, there is a deep background on how Isro, the Indian Space Agency, Tok Root and Germined in the soils of the cold war geopolitics and the US-US-Eust’s space race, and how the Soviet extended a hand to help. We learn about the small steps of India in space, with the launch of the sound rockets of the Thumbba Equatorial launch Station (Terls).
Early rockets
The second chapter is an interesting description of the first rockets of India: satellite launch vehicles (SLV), whose consistent failures earned him the little flattering soblatist: the sea loving vehicle, since everyone fell into the sea. We learn about how India needed a large altitude
In those days, the problems were a common duration as an early SLV launch, the ‘umbilical cable’ remotely did not separate, and a technician had to raise the launch tower to separate the cable, which increases the safety standards. The SLV successor, the increased satellite launch vehicle (always sea lover vehicle) also regularly failed and had to resign, before a project for a larger rocket, the PSLV was tasks.
Satellite history
The third chapter, on satellites, also deepens the story, the launch of the first satellite of India, Aryabhatta, of the Russian soil, the Indo-Sovostic Satellite Project of 3 million rupees (later renowned renamed Indian scientific satellite project), the early Bhastellite.
The fourth and last chapter of the first part of the book leads to the reader through Chandrayaan (initially called ‘Somayaan’ but renamed by Prime Minister Vajpayee) and the mangogean projects.
Key characters
These chronicles are sprayed with discussions about the critical roles played by the space heroes of India, sung and not recognized, such as Vikram Sarabhai, Sábwan, Apj Abdul Kalam, Ur rao and RV Raman.
Biography
The second part of the book is divided into five chapters, the first three are biographical sketches of Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. The author describes how his thirst for space took them there, how Rakesh Sharma lost his six -year -old daughter while training for his space trip, but independently persevered. The Kalpana Chawla description – citizen of the Milky Way, which perished in the tragedy of Columbia, just 65 km on the earth, while their parents waited for their splashes, is really moving. The discussion about Sunita Williams stops at the point that she stayed stranded at the International Space Station, since the book was completed before her return recently.
The fourth chapter of this section is about Gaganyaan, the next human spatial flight of India, which sheds light on the government suddenly turned to its favor, after years of being against. The final chapter, about ‘The Way ahead’, speaks of the ambitious projects of India: Gaganyaan, the next Chandrayan, Venus Probe Sukrayaan, the great goal of building the Bharat Antariksh station and sending an Indian to the moon. Points of pain.
Now, the negatives of the book.
In fact, after reading the book, I would appreciate the author for collecting pain and weave it in this book. However, there is a persistent disappointment that there is nothing in the book that is no longer aviaxable in the public domain. An enthusiastic researcher can get almost all the information in the book of Fuentes as Wikipedia.
One would have liked to see a personal touch of the author, as parts of his interviews that may not have a published bone or runner whispers that may have heard his journalistic career. The author grants Credit to Spk GUPTA, former correspondent from PTI Moscow, for sharing all his notes with him, but if these notes contain information so far not revealed, the reader has nothing like that.
In addition, it takes some aspects of India’s spatial history have ruled out with a passing reference: the incredible mission Aditya L-1 difficult and successful, the controversies of Nambinarayan and Devas, the tensions in the upper brass of Isro). These are some gaps in the book.
Book details
Title: Space: The India Story
Author: Dineh Sharma
Editorial: Bloomsbury
Price: ₹ 599
Find the book here.
Posted on April 20, 2025