60th anniversary of the launch of the first sounding rocket from Thumba; Several programmes are planned by VSSC on November 25

The first sounding rocket launch from Thumba on November 21, 1963, which many believe marked the beginning of India's space era, will be celebrated with a number of events at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) on November 25. The hopes and aspirations of a young country that had just gained independence twenty years earlier were raised when an American-made Nike-Apache rocket with a French payload took off from what was then a little-known hamlet in the coastal town of Thiruvananthapuram on November 21, 1963.

A two-stage sounding rocket of the Rohini class RH200 is scheduled to take off from Thumba on November 25 in a fitting remembrance of that inaugural launch. Jitendra Singh, the state minister for science and technology, will formally kick off the celebrations.

Senior ISRO executives, veterans, and Chairman S. Somanath of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be in attendance. 

The United Nations (UN) financed the establishment of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) as a range for upper atmosphere scientific research. In actuality, revenue authorities in Kerala had designated eight locations, including Thumba. The closest point to the geomagnetic equator was the primary criteria. After being narrowed down to Thumba and Vellanathuruthu close to Karunagapally, Thumba was selected. The rest is history from ISRO, including how the church and the surrounding town gave up the bordering property and the St. Mary Magdalene Church, which is now a space museum, to build the complex.