Question

The first Indian built rocket was launched from:
(A) Bangalore
(B) Sriharikota
(C) Thumba
(D) Trivandrum

Answer 1

Hint: India began its space venture after successful launch of a sounding rocket on 21st November 1963. It also marked a quantum jump for India in the field of aeronomy and atmospheric science. It was launched from a site which was formerly St Mary Magdalene Church which was located at Earth’s magnetic equator.

Complete step by step solution
The rocket launched was a sounding rocket. Sounding rockets are generally one or two stages which work on solid propellant rocket systems and are used to probe the upper atmospheric region and for space research. Sounding rockets have a payload range of 8 to \[{\text{100 kg}}\] and an apogee range of 80 to \[{\text{475 km}}\]. Apogee is a point around the Earth’s orbit where the orbiting body is farthest from Earth.
These rockets are also used as a platform to test prototypes of new components and subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites. Sounding rocket system made it possible to test the atmosphere through an airborne testing system. The first rocket was not indigenous it was imported from Russia (M-100) and France (Centaure). ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) launched its first indigenous was RH-75 (diameter equal to 75 mm) on 20th November 1967. This rocket comes under the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) programme. RH-75 was launched from TERLS (Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station) which is located at Thumba on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

So, the required answer is option C (Thumba).

Note: We started with a rocket on a bicycle and launch pad in a church and today we are one of the leaders in space research and innovation. India holds the record for launching 104 satellites in a single rocket (PSLV-C37), launched on 15th February 2017.