History
Sriharikota island was chosen in 1969 for a satellite launching station.
The centre became operational 1971 when an RH-125 sounding rocket was launched. The first attempted launch of an orbital satellite, Rohini 1A aboard a Satellite Launch Vehicle, took place 10 Aug 1979, but due to a failure in thrust vectoring of the rocket's second stage, the satellite's orbit decayed 19 Aug 1979.
SHAR was named as 'Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR' (SDSC), on 5 September 2002, in memory of Prof Satish Dhawan, former Chairman of the ISRO.
The SHAR facility now consists of two launch pads, with the second built in 2005. The second launch pad was used for launches beginning in 2005 and is a universal launch pad, accommodating all of the launch vehicles used by ISRO. The two launch pads will allow multiple launches in a single year, which was not possible earlier. India's lunar orbiter Chandrayaan 1 launched from the centre at 6:22 AM IST on 22 October 2008.
SHAR will be the main base for the Indian human spaceflight program. A new third launchpad will built specifically to meet the target of launching a manned space mission by 2017.
Read more about this topic: Satish Dhawan Space Centre
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