ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan on Sunday celebrated India’s transformation from a fledgling spacefaring nation dependent on borrowed technology to a global launch leader poised to send a 6,500 kg U.S.-built communication satellite into orbit within months.
Speaking at the 21st Convocation of SRM Institute of Science and Technology in Kattankulathur near Chennai — where he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Maharashtra Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan — Narayanan recalled the agency’s modest origins in 1963, when India received a tiny rocket from the United States.
“In 1975, using U.S. satellite data, we demonstrated mass communication by installing 2,400 television sets in 2,400 villages across six states,” he said, contrasting that era with ISRO’s recent high-profile successes.
He hailed July 30, 2025, as a “historical day” when the GSLV-F16 rocket placed the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission into orbit — the most expensive satellite ever built. The L-band SAR payload was supplied by NASA, and the S-band payload by ISRO. NASA teams, Narayanan noted, praised the precision of the launch.
“In another couple of months, the same country that once gave us a tiny rocket will see us launching their 6,500 kg communication satellite from Indian soil, on our own launcher. That is the scale of our growth,” he said.
Highlighting ISRO’s global track record, Narayanan noted that India has launched 433 satellites for 34 countries using its own launch vehicles — a leap from having no satellite technology just five decades ago.
