Thumba
Encyclopedia
Thumba is a suburb of Thiruvananthapuram
city, capital of Kerala
, India
.
Thumba became well-known to the out-siders after the establishment of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station
(TERLS), which was the first of that kind in India. TERLS was founded in Pallithura
in 1962 in the district of Trivandrum on the southern tip of India
very close to earth's magnetic equator
to launch sounding rockets. Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (who went on to become President of Indian Republic) was amongst the initial team of rocket engineers. The first sounding rocket, Nike-Apache, was launched rocket on 21 Nov 1963. The Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) program to develop indigenously developed and fabricated sounding rockets launched the first single-stage Rohini (RH-75) rocket (32 kg rocket with 7 kg payload to ~10 km altitude) in 1967, followed by a two-stage Rohini rocket (100 kg payload to over 320 km altitude). Apart from Indian payload, sounding rockets from many other countries (including USA, Russia
, Japan
, France
, Germany
) were also launched from Thumba, as part of mutual international collaboration. TERLS developed infrastructure for all aspects of rocketry, ranging from rocket design, rocket propellant, rocket motor casting, integration, payload-assembly, testing, evaluation besides building subsystems like payload housing and jettisonable nose cone. Fiber Reinforced Plastics composite materials for nosecone were used in early programs at TERLS.
The rocket launch from TERLS came to a stand-still in 2000. Later in 2002, the rocket launchings were resumed from TERLS http://asia.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=9131. ISRO announced their plans to launch 180 number of RH-200 rockets from TERLS over the next five years.
The latest launch from this station was on the 9th of July 2010.
canal, the border with Kochuthura is the Rajiv Gandhi Nagar road. The entire village is flat at sea-level and the ground near to the coast is made of tan coloured beach sand. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the village where the ground is made of white sand where, till the developments of late 1990s, large amounts of a medicinal herb with white flowers called Thumba grew in abundance, hence the name.
TERLS dedicated to the United Nations on February 2, 1968.
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...
city, capital of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Thumba became well-known to the out-siders after the establishment of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station
Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station
The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station is an Indian spaceport, operated by the Indian Space Research Organization. It is located in Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram which is near the southern tip of India, very close to earth's magnetic equator...
(TERLS), which was the first of that kind in India. TERLS was founded in Pallithura
Pallithura
Pallithura is a village in the district of Trivandrum, the capital city of Kerala state in India. Literally translated from Malayalam, it means 'the beach besides the church . Although most churches in this region where beside the Arabian Sea, the etymology is significant because Pallitura is one...
in 1962 in the district of Trivandrum on the southern tip of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
very close to earth's magnetic equator
Equator
An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....
to launch sounding rockets. Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (who went on to become President of Indian Republic) was amongst the initial team of rocket engineers. The first sounding rocket, Nike-Apache, was launched rocket on 21 Nov 1963. The Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) program to develop indigenously developed and fabricated sounding rockets launched the first single-stage Rohini (RH-75) rocket (32 kg rocket with 7 kg payload to ~10 km altitude) in 1967, followed by a two-stage Rohini rocket (100 kg payload to over 320 km altitude). Apart from Indian payload, sounding rockets from many other countries (including USA, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) were also launched from Thumba, as part of mutual international collaboration. TERLS developed infrastructure for all aspects of rocketry, ranging from rocket design, rocket propellant, rocket motor casting, integration, payload-assembly, testing, evaluation besides building subsystems like payload housing and jettisonable nose cone. Fiber Reinforced Plastics composite materials for nosecone were used in early programs at TERLS.
The rocket launch from TERLS came to a stand-still in 2000. Later in 2002, the rocket launchings were resumed from TERLS http://asia.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=9131. ISRO announced their plans to launch 180 number of RH-200 rockets from TERLS over the next five years.
The latest launch from this station was on the 9th of July 2010.
Location and geography
Thumba is a vast village bordering Meenumkulam in the east, St. Dominic's Vettucaud in the north, and Kochuthura in the south; towards its west is the Arabian Sea. While the border with Meenumkulam is the Parvathi PuthannaarParvathi Puthannaar
Parvathi Puthannar is a man-made canal that runs through the west coast of the Trivandrum District. It was named after Rani Parvathi Bai who was the reigning Queen of Travancore during the time it was created. "Puthannar" in Malayalam means "the new river". It was created primarily for connecting...
canal, the border with Kochuthura is the Rajiv Gandhi Nagar road. The entire village is flat at sea-level and the ground near to the coast is made of tan coloured beach sand. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the village where the ground is made of white sand where, till the developments of late 1990s, large amounts of a medicinal herb with white flowers called Thumba grew in abundance, hence the name.
TERLS dedicated to the United Nations on February 2, 1968.