Question might seem strange for many who witnessed success of Agni and other range of missiles developed by India. These rockets are hailed as one of the finest in the world and have been developed indigenously by Indian Defense Research and Development, which was spear headed by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalaam.

But for many it is a little known fact that the early usage of War Rocket Technology was indeed developed in India. Rockets as such were invented by Chinese  around 1000 AD, however entertainment was the prime purpose. It was in the period of 1750 AD and 1799 AD, when Haider Ali and his son Tippu Sultan have improvised the technology and use them in battles against British Troops.

Tippu’s army launched a rocket assault on British troops, which caused massive destruction and lead to their defeat in the Second Anglo-Mysore War. He however lost the Third and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars. Tippu Sultan, died in 1799 saving his city, Seringapatnam, when British troops took over the City. The troops which captured the city found unused rockets which were then moved to Royal Artillery Center in London.

William Congreve, reverse engineered these rockets to develop new ones for British troops which were used by them in Wars fought later. Few of the rockets that were acquired during the siege of Seringapatnam are still at display in Royal Arsenal Museum in London.

NASA, is said to believe Tippu as father of War rocket technology and has a picture of the rocket attack on British troops in their halls. We are sharing this picture from NASA’s archive for you.

There is a detailed account of the Tippu’s rocket technology in “Wings of Fire”, the autobiography of Dr. A P J Abdul Kalaam, from where this article is inspired.

It is however sad that such a Technology went into oblivion for 150 years before resurfacing. We will bring forth Ancient Indian perspectives on many current technologies through our series, “Ancient Indian Technologies”.

Keep reading!

Images Courtesy: NASA and Wikipedia

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It was a proud moment for all Indians, when Chandrayaan was launched successfully from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sri Hari Kota, Andhra Pradesh.

Breaking its own previous world record, ISRO launched 11 scientific instruments with this launch. Last time ISRO launched 9 satellites with the PSLV – C9. 

India now is the third Asian country and sixth nation in the world to send an unmanned lunar mission to the moon. The others primarily have been US, Russia, Europe, China (Oct ’07) and Japan (Oct ’07)

NASA included a “Moon Mineralogy Mapper” on this mission, which is a state-of-the-art imaging spectrometer. This instrument is expected to provide a first of its kind map of the entire Moon’s surface at high resolution, which will reveal details such as mineral make up of the surface. This information will then be available to scientists who are looking to answer questions such as Moon’s origin and evolution of solar system.

One of the key objectives of this mission is to create high-resolution maps of the lunar surface. Today as it stands world seems to have better maps of Mars than the nearby moon. These maps can also be put to use by astronauts who may travel on future expeditions to locate resources, possibly water too!

Back to Indian pride, ISRO, with this mission has established its footprint as one of the most technologically advanced space research organisations. With six successful launches of up their sleeve we clearly know what path ISRO is headed. Hats off to the entire team at ISRO who has made 1 billion Indians proud.

Click here to view a detailed explanation of how Chandrayan will reach moon provided by Times UK.

Visit Chandrayaan’s official website @: http://isro.gov.in/chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm

Till then Jai hind! 

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