Science, geography, and nation: the global creation of Thumba

Abstract

The origins of the Indian space program are typically traced back to the founding of a rocket launch base in Thumba in the state of Kerala in India in the 1960s. In creating infrastructure at Thumba, Indian scientific elites used geography as an instrument to create a vast international network of scientific and political actors committed to the science that was possible within India, particularly cosmic ray studies. They were drawing on a long tradition of linking geography to science redolent of the colonial era but were inspired by their newly constituted political imaginary of independent India as a place where science, geography, and nation were perfectly mapped on to each other. NASA’s help was crucial in this regard, enabled as a tool in Cold War high politics, as American technocrats sought to steer India towards the West, while India itself was keenly aware of a more proximate phenomenon, Pakistan’s own burgeoning efforts to do the same. Concerned about domestic opprobrium to large Indian investments in space technology, Indian and American actors shielded the Thumba project from critique by installing it under the umbrella of the international order, in this case the United Nations. This internationalism was complemented by a deep and firm belief in the universalism of modern science as a portable instrument, capable of improving the social order anywhere, regardless of political or social context.

Keywords:

• Thumba
• India
• space
• Sarabhai
• geography
• Cold War

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Insightful popular works include Raj, Reach for the Stars; Rao and Radhakrishnan, A Brief History of Rocketry in ISRO. The best academic works include Raja, “Interactions”; Reddy, “India’s Forays into Space”; Srinivasan, “No Free Launch.”

2. Maharaj, “Space for Development.” See also Baskaran, “Technology Development in India’s Space Programme 1965–1995.” Baskaran, an economist, has also published a number of articles on the topic of ‘indigenous’ innovation in India’s space program.

3. Bhatia, “India’s Space Program”; Mistry, “India’s Emerging Space Program”; Mistry, “The Geostrategic Implications of India’s Space Program.”

4. Sankar, The Economics of India’s Space Programme.

5. Kalam, Wings of Fire; Rao, India’s Rise as a Space Power; Gupta, Growing Rocket Systems and the Team.

6. For more on international scientific networks and Indians, see Anderson, Nucleus and Nation.

7. On universalism (and its contestations) in relation to science in Indian history, see Gosling, Science and the Indian Tradition; Chakrabarti, Western Science in Modern India.

8. I explore these factors, especially, the American government’s explicit goal of providing India with technical assistance for space activities as a way to divert the nation from atomic weapons development, in my “Making Space for the Nation.”

9. For Cold War science, see Leslie, The Cold War and American Science; Wang, In Sputnik’s Shadow; Oreskes and Krige, eds., Science and Technology in the Global Cold War; Dongen, ed., Cold War Science; Wolfe, Competing with the Soviets.

10. For uncritical treatments of Bhabha, see Kulkarni and Sarma, Homi Bhabha; Venkataraman, Bhabha and His Magnificent Obsessions; Deshmukh, Homi Jehangir Bhabha; Ghosh and Grover, eds., Tribute to a Titan; Chowdhury and Dasgupta, A Masterful Spirit. For Sarabhai, see Joshi, ed., Vikram Sarabhai. For a recent thoughtful examination of his life, see Shah, Vikram Sarabhai.

11. The quote is from Abraham, The Making of the Indian Atomic Bomb, 43.

12. Chowdhury and Dasgupta’s A Masterful Spirit does a good job of situating Bhabha’s myriad interests as part of a larger worldview of cosmopolitan pursuits and high culture.

13. For Bhabha’s many activities related to the organization and priorities of Indian science in the 1950s and early 1960s, see Anderson, Nucleus and Nation, 250–75.

14. Sreekantan, “H. J. Bhabha.”

15. Anderson, Nucleus and Nation, 101; “Visit of R. A. Millikan to India,” 413.

16. Anderson, Nucleus and Nation, 103.

17. Sarabhai, “Cosmic Ray Investigations in Tropical Latitudes.”

18. Abraham, The Making of the Indian Atomic Bomb, 45.

19. Shah, Vikram Sarabhai, 40–1.

20. Bernard Peters, a colleague of Bhabha’s, very perfectly articulated this strategy in a lecture given at the Indian Science Congress in 1956. See Peters, “The Primary Cosmic Radiation.”

21. Many examples of Bhabha’s copious correspondence with international scientific luminaries are included in Chowdhury and Dasgupta, A Masterful Spirit.

22. Muir-Harmony, “Tracking Diplomacy.”

23. For a brief summary of Sarabhai’s scientific work during IGY, see Shah, Vikram Sarabhai, 96–8.

24. There is a reference to a Sarabhai proposal in 1956 to build ‘a research base in “rockets and missiles”’. See Reddy, “India’s Forays into Space,” 227.

25. Shah, Vikram Sarabhai, 121. At the University of Minnesota, Bhavsar worked closely with John R. Winckler of the ‘Cosmic Ray Group’ in the School of Physics. Ney was well-known for his work on cosmic rays, atmospheric physics, and later, infrared astronomy.

26. “National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958,” Public Law 85-568, 72 Stat., 426, Signed by the president on July 29, 1958, reproduced as document II-17 in Exploring the Unknown, Volume I, 334–45. See especially 335, 339.

27. John M. Logsdon, “The Development of International Space Cooperation” in Exploring the Unknown, Volume II, 1–15. See esp. 1.

28. “About | Cospar,” https://cosparhq.cnes.fr/about (accessed December 5, 2015). For COSPAR’s birth, see de Hulst, “International Space Cooperation.”

29. Porter to van de Hulst (March 14, 1959) in Exploring the Unknown, Volume II, 18–9.

30. Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, 42–3.

31. Cited in Reddy, “India’s Forays into Space,” 228–9.

32. Massie and Robins, History of British Space Science, 163–6.

33. Mitra, “Report on Space Research in India.”

34. “Nehru Cites Science Gains.”

35. For reiteration of the NASA announcement, see Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, 40.

36. “Biographical Sketch/Mr. Arnold W. Frutkin, Director, Office of International Programs” (March 14, 1960), NASA History Division, Historical Reference Collection, International Programs, Folder India-US.

37. “Memorandum of Conversation – on May 18, 1961” (June 1, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Cooperative Space Programs 9. India, 1961–1962.

38. Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, 54–9.

39. Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, 34–5.

40. Quoted in Krige, “Technology, Foreign Policy, and International Cooperation in Space.” See esp. 242.

41. T. Eliot Weil to Wreatham E. Gathright (October 5, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Cooperative Space Programs 9. India, 1961–1962.

42. Hays to Senator Towers (November 30, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A – Cooperative Space Program 9. India, 1961–1962.

43. Galbraith to Secretary of State (August 8, 1961), NARA II, RG 59 General Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal File, 1960–1963, From: 991.73/4-662 To: 991.8136/1-660, Folder 991.8135/1-660.

44. Department of Atomic Energy, Brief Annual Report, 1960–1961, 20.

45. Anderson notes that Sarabhai was appointed to the AEC in December 1965. See Nucleus and Nation, 277.

46. See Anderson, Nucleus and Nation, Chapter 18.

47. Menon quoted in Goss, “Origins of Radio Astronomy at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Role of J. L. Pawsey.” See especially 13.

48. 25 Years of PRL, 4–5. K.S. Ramanathan, the then-director of PRL noted that some of this process, especially bringing PRL under government control may have preceded the August 1961 decision. He notes that ‘[i]n 1960–61, it was decided by the Government of India that the PRL be made an autonomous research institution under the trusteeship and management of the Government of India (Department of Atomic Energy), the Government of Gujarat, the Karmakshetra Educational Foundation and the Ahmedabad Educational Society.’ See his “Peaceful Uses of Space” in Joshi, Vikram Sarabhai, 111–9 (see especially 113)

49. Anderson, Nucleus and Nation, 270–5.

50. Hays to Senator Towers (November 30, 1961).

51. Paul Grimes, “India and the U.S. Plan Space Study.” See also “Department of State to AmEmbassy New Delhi” (February 19, 1960), NARA II, RG 59 General Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal File, 1960–1963, From: 991.73/4-662 To: 991.8136/1-660, Box 3112, folder 991.8136/1-660.

52. During the trip, Bhabha had plans to attend meetings hosted by the UN and the IAEA in New York, give an address to the American Nuclear Society in Chicago and meet with the chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission in Washington, DC. See Shroff to Dryden (September 7, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 1960–1963, Box 3112, Folder 991:801/3-861.

53. Gathright to Frutkin (October 19, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Cooperative Space Programs 9. India, 1961–1962.

54. Bivins to Frutkin (November 28, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Cooperative Space Programs 9. India, 1961–1962.

55. “Memorandum” (July 24, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 1960–1963, Box 3112, Folder 991:801/3-861.

56. The cabinet approved the decision on 10 February, but the public announcement, by the DAE, was made on 16 February. The original membership included (in the order they were listed in official documentation): Vainur Bappu (Astrophysical Observatory at Kodaikanal), P.R. Krishna Rao (Indian Meteorological Department), M.G.K. Menon (TIFR), A.P. Mitra (NPL), P.R. Pisharoty (Indian Meteorological Department), K.R. Ramanathan (PRL), and P.J. Rodgers (Overseas Communications Service). Amembassy New Delhi to State Department (March 2, 1962), NARA II, RG 59, Central Decimal File, 1960–1963, Box 3112, Folder 991:801/3-861.

57. Department of Atomic Energy, Brief Annual Report, 1962–63, 20.

58. Frutkin to Bhabha (December 13, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Cooperative Space Programs 9. India, 1961–1962. For Cahill, see “Laurence James Cahill Jr.”

59. “Draft – RGBivins/blp – 5/16/62 – Memorandum of Understanding Between the Indian Committee for Space Research and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration,” NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Cooperative Space Programs 9. India, 1961–1962.

60. “Memorandum for the Files” (August 7, 1962), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy & Outer Space, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 341, Folder 14.B Outer Space 14.B.5 Outer Space Exhibits June-December, 1962 2 of 2.

61. “India’s Space Activities” (November 27, 1964), RG 59, Bureau of International Scientific and Technological Affairs, Central Files, 1964–1966, Alliance for Progress to Space & Astronautics, Box 1, Folder Space & Astronautics SP 1 Gen. Policy. Plans. Coordination, 1964. Frutkin openly noted in 1965 that ‘the suggestion was … made to … Sarabhai.’ See Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, 62.

62. “Resolution Adopted by the General Assembly, 1721 (XVI).”

63. Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, 145.

64. “Arnold W. Frutkin,” Oral History Transcript, NASA Headquarters Oral History Project, Interviewed by Rebecca Wright, Washington, DC, January 11, 2002, 39.

65. Astronautics and Aeronautical Events of 1962, 95.

66. “Report of the Scientific and Technical Sub-Committee on the Work of Its First Session (28 May – 13 June 1962),” 10.

67. Ibid., 13.

68. “1802 (XVII). International Co-operation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.”

69. “India to Get Rocket Station.”

70. “India Offers a Site for Rockets to U.N.”

71. Rahmatullah, “Pakistan National Report on Space Research.”

72. “Memorandum of Understanding U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Pakistan Upper Atmosphere and Space Research Committee” (September 14, 1961), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Coop. Space Prog. 15. Pakistan, 1961–1962. The members of SUPARCO were Abdus Salam (Imperial College of Science & Technology, London), I.H. Usmani (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission), S.N. Naqvi (Pakistan Meteorological Department), and M. Innas Ali (University of Dacca).

73. “US-Pakistan Space Cooperation,” (February 6, 1962), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 333, Folder 14A-Coop. Space Prog. 15. Pakistan, 1961–1962.

74. These locations were at Thumba, Alillathura, Perumathura, Quilon, Allepey (now Alappuzha), Punathura, Varkala, and Vilavancode Taluk (in Tamil Nadu).

75. “Mission: Preliminary Survey for the Rocket Launching Site (Part 1)” and “Considerations for the selection of an equatorial launching site” in NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy & Outer Space, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 341, Folder 14.B Outer Space 14.B.5 Outer Space Exhibits June-December, 1962 2 of 2.

76. “Selection of an Equatorial Rocket Launch Site” (August 5, 1962), NARA II, RG 59, Office of the Secretary, Special Asst. to Sec. of State for Atomic Energy & Outer Space, 1948–1962, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948–1962, Box 341, Folder 14.B Outer Space 14.B.5 Outer Space Exhibits June-December, 1962 2 of 2.

77. Amconsul Bombay to Department of State (August 14, 1962), NARA II, RG 59 General Records of the Department of State, Central Decimal File, 1960–1963, From: 991.73/4-662 To: 991.8136/1-660, Box 3112, Folder 991.801/3-861. The spot was at ‘approximately 9°01’N, 76°31’E’ which, as it turns out, is actually in the ocean.

78. Amconsul Bombay to Department of State (August 14, 1962).

79. Sarabhai, “Opportunities for Space Research in India.”

80. Raj, Reach for the Stars, 12.

81. 20 Years of Rocketry in Thumba, 83. The locals were relocated to Pallithura where a new church was built for them.

82. Menon quoted in Rao and Radhakrishnan, A Brief History of Rocketry in ISRO, 7.

83. Shah, Vikram Sarabhai, 121. Blamont himself thinks he met Sarabhai for the first time in May 1962 in Washington, DC but he qualifies his claim by noting that he ‘can’t remember’ precisely. See Blamont, L’Action Sœur du Rêve, 193.

84. The evidence remains ambiguous as to who approached who. A NASA memo from August 1962 notes that ‘Sarabhai has decided to take advantage of an earlier offer from Blamont to assist the Indians in their efforts to fabricate the sodium vapor payloads.’ See “Memorandum for the Files” (August 7, 1962).

85. “Indian Space Scientist,” TASS English, Moscow, 1940 GMT, September 3, 1962 and 1100 GMT, September 9, 1962.

86. For Fedorov’s figurehead role, see Siddiqi, “Cosmic Contradictions.” See especially, 66, 68, 274 (fn. 34).

87. Sarabhai was a member of the Continuing Committee of Pugwash, participated in most of its annual conferences, and along with Bhabha, helped set up its Indian branch. Fedorov was the deputy chair of the Soviet Pugwash Committee from 1957 to 1963.

88. “Otchet s soveshchanii po voprosy o rabotakh na mezhdunarodmom raketnom poligone v Indii (Tumba)” (May 13, 1964), Russian State Archive of the Economy (RGAE), f. 8061, op. 9t, d. 1195, ll. 100–2; Zhemchuzhin, “Mezhdunarodnyi ekvatorial’nyi poligon v tkhumba”; Department of Atomic Energy, Brief Annual Report, 1963–64, 26.

89. Corliss, NASA Sounding Rockets, 1958–1968, 24–5, 52–4, 82.

90. “Memorandum of Understanding Between the Department of Atomic Energy and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration” (October 11, 1962), RG 59, Bureau of International Scientific and Technological Affairs, Central Files, 1964–1966, Box 1, Folder Space & Astronautics SP 1 Gen. Policy. Plans. Coordination, 1964.

91. “U.S.-India Cooperate in Peaceful Space Experiments,” NASA News Release No. 63-5, January 14, 1963, NASA History Division, Historical Reference Collection, International Programs, India-U.S. Folder.

92. Raj, Reach for the Stars, 14–5. The eighth Indian was M.S.V. Rao of the India Meteorological Department who spent April 1963 at Goddard. See “Report of M. S. V. Rao, Meteorologist, on Training at NASA, Wallops Island, for the Period April 1, 1963 to April 30, 1963,” NASA History Division, Historical Reference Collection, International Programs, India-U.S. Folder. See also “Indian Rocket Men Here.”

93. $12 had the same purchasing power as roughly $93 in 2015.

94. Wallace, Jr., Wallops Station and the Creation of an American Space Program, 89.

95. This test launch, from Wallops, was carried out on September 9, 1963 and flew the electrojet experiment from Laurence Cahill. See “US/India Test Preparations”; Corliss, NASA Sounding Rockets, 1958–1968, 104.

96. Aravamudan quoted in Raj, Reach for the Stars, 15.

97. Other Americans included Edward E. Bissell, Jr. Richard J.H. Barnes, Robert Conrad, and Howard L. Galloway from NASA and John F. Bedinger of the Geophysical Corporation of America. There were also apparently “scientists from Denmark” who were present. See “India’s First Two-Stage Rocket Launched.”

98. Shah notes that three French delegates were there: Blamont, Marie-Lise Lory (later Channin), and Michel Autier. Shah, Vikram Sarabhai, 127. Blamont notes that he wasn’t there in November 1963 but that Lory, Jean-Paul Schneider, and he were present at Thumba for a subsequent launch in January 1964. See Blamont, L’Action Sœur du Rêve, 196–198.

99. Subramanian, “Reaching out to the stars.”

100. American documents imply that Soviet equipment arrived a year later, in November 1964. See “India’s Space Activities” (November 27, 1964).

101. “First Rocket Launched at Thumba International Release,” NASA News Release No. 63-105, November 22, 1963.

102. “India’s First Two-Stage Rocket Launched”; “India Launches U.S. Rocket!”; “India Launches First Rocket.”

103. Teltsch, “U.N. Team to Tour India Space Base.”

104. Blamont, L’Action Sœur du Rêve, 196–7.

105. “Space Research Activities in Pakistan, 1963–1964.” Brazil announced to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space on November 3, 1964 that it would seek sponsorship for its proposed launch facility near Natal. New York Times, November 4, 1964, 39.

106. “2130 (XX). International Cooperation in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space”; Sarabhai, “Space Activity for Developing Countries” in Vikram Sarabhai, Science Policy and National Development, 21–7. See especially, 24–5.

107. Kistiakowsky quoted in Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, 11.

108. Krige, American Hegemony and the Postwar Reconstruction of Europe.

109. Sarabhai, “Space Activity for Developing Countries,” 22–3.