Mumbai: 50,000 school students throng space expo marking Sarabhai's centenary

By: Lakshmy Pranesh
MUMBAI: More than 50,000 schoolchildren thronged NES International Mumbai-IB World School, Mulund, during a two-day space exhibition.
The space exhibition, organized in collaboration with ISRO, marked the centenary of Vikram Sarabhai, also known as the 'Father of India's Space Programme'. Speaking at the inaugural session on Monday, A P Jayaraman, nuclear scientist BARC, recalled, "In 1970, Sarabhai asked me to display India's rocket, Rohini 75, at a space research expo in Osaka, Japan...At that time, USSR and USA had displayed their finest achievements in space science. But for India, it was just the beginning; years later we are almost on a par with both nations."
Jayant Joshi, scientist, engineer and associate project director, GSAT; Satish Rao, space scientist; Shrikant Patil, scientific officer; Jitendra Kharde, junior engineer from space application centre (ISRO), and R Varadarajan, founder-principal of the school, were present at the event. Over 16 sections covering ISRO activities were on display, including launch vehicles PSLV and GSLV, Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan.
Varadarajan said: "We are the first IB school to introduce earth and space science in the curriculum and have designed a syllabus with the help of ISRO scientists. In collaboration with a UK space school, we will be starting NES Space School in India."