The
project was bigger than their collective capabilities as none of them had any experience
in building a machine. They started working on a difficult project, to produce a wingless,
light and swift machine. He could find metaphorical connection between a hovercraft and an
aircraft. The then Defense Minister V K Menon showed keen interest in this project, which
filled them with new enthusiasm. There were many who tried to discourage and dissuade
them. During the project, the Defense Minister regularly visited ADE. After a few
questions, it was decided that the prototype would go in test flight within a year. He
told the Director: “GEM flight is possible with the gadgets Kalam now
possesses.”
The hovercraft was called Nandi, after Shiva’s bull. It received a
form beyond their expectation. The Defense Minister joined the test of Nandi, overruling
the accompanying official’s concern for his safety. They could complete the project
prior to the deadline. The hovercraft was on an air cushion of about 40-mm with a load of
550 kg. including the tare weight. Dr Mediratta was visibly pleased with the project but
Kalam was disappointed, as he could not obtain desired results.
Meeting
MGK Menon
After a few days, Mediratta called Kalam and
inquired if the hovercraft was ready for flight. Some VIP were to visit the laboratory the
next day. Next morning, Mediratta came with a tall, handsome and bearded visitor who asked
Kalam several questions. He took a 10-minute ride in the hovercraft. He was Prof MGK
Menon, Director of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (TIFR). Within a
week, Kalam received an interview call for the post of Rocket Engineer from the Indian
Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), about which, he later came to know that it was
formed out of the TIFR talent pool at Mumbai to organize space research in India.
First
Meeting with Sarabhai
The interview was held at Mumbai, headed by Dr
Vikram Sarabhai along with Prof MGK Menon and Mr. Saraf, the then Deputy Secretary of the
Atomic Energy Commission. All of them were very polite, friendly and warm, as Kalam later
recalled. He was absorbed as a rocket engineer at INCOSPAR.
In 1962, INCOSPAR decided to set up the
Equatorial Rocket Launching Station at Thumba, a sleepy fishing village near
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The site was selected as it was found suitable due to its
geographical proximity with the earth’s magnetic equator.
First
Visit To NASA
Soon
after, Kalam was asked to proceed to America for a six-month training program on Sounding
Rocket Launching Techniques at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
work centers. Before leaving India, he visited his family at Rameswaram.
India’s First Rocket Launch Program
Kalam started working at NASA at the Langley Research Center (LRC) in Hampton,
Virginia, which is primarily an R & D center for advanced aerospace technology. From
LRC, he went to Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) at Greenbelt, Maryland. At the end of
his visit, he went to the Wallops Flight Facility at Wallops Island in East Coast,
Virginia. He was impressed by the American mentality of fighting in adverse situation. As
soon as Kalam returned to India from NASA, India’s first rocket launch took place on
November 21, 1963. He was in charge of rocket integration and safety when the
Nike–Apache was launched. The launch was smooth and problem free.
| Dr Sarabhai was happy with the successful launch of the Nike–Apache and was planning his future with Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV). He asked Kalam to take up studies on a Rocket-Assisted Take-off System (RATO) for military aircraft. Dr Sarabhai, an ideal experimenter and innovator, had great faith in his team under active collaboration with the USA, France and USSR. He could develop the rocket launch site at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS). The real journey of the Indian aerospace program, began with the Rohini Sounding Rocket (RSR) Program. The program was responsible for the development and fabrication of sounding rockets and their associated on-board systems for scientific investigations in India. Kalam was assigned the task of providing interface support to payload scientists. He had to interact with scientists from TIFR, National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), besides scientists from the USA, USSR, France, Germany and Japan. |
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Providential Escape
| Kalam had a colleague named Sudhakar, working in the Payload Preparation Laboratory. Once they were filling and remotely pressing the hazardous sodium and thermite mix. The climate of Thumba was hot and humid. After the sixth operation, both of them went into the payload room to confirm the proper filling of the mix. Suddenly, a drop of sweat from Sudhakar’s forehead fell onto the sodium, and soon, there was a violent explosion, which shook the room. The fire was spreading fast and water cannot extinguish such fires. Sudhakar did not lose his presence of mind. He broke the glass window with his bare hands and threw Kalam out to safety before jumping out himself. |
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While working at TERLS, he
was involved with rocket preparation activities, payload assembly, testing, evaluation,
building subsystems like payload housing and jettisonable nose cones. As a natural
consequence, he was led to the field of composite materials, working on cones. He used to
read anything and everything available on related topics, particularly on glass and carbon
Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) composites. 
Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi’s Visit To Thumba
In February 1969, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Thumba to dedicate TERLS to the
International Space Science Community. She commissioned India’s first filament
winding machine at their laboratory. Kalam, along with CR Satya, PN Subramanian and MN
Satyanarayana, made high strength glass cloth laminates to build non-magnetic payload
housings and test-flew them in a two-stage sounding rocket. They also wound and test-flew
rocket motor casings of upto 360-mm diameter. The Indian payloads now, were no longer
needed to be launched by French rockets as done earlier due to lack opf infrastructure and
technology. Two rockets Rohini and Menaka were built at Thumba. Under special attention
and guidance of Dr Sarabhai, the first Rohini–75 rocket was launched from TERLS on
November 20, 1967. The following year, Kalam was called at Delhi along with Group Captain
VS Narayanan at Hotel Ashoka by Dr Sarabhai.
Dr Sarabhai had planned to
develop a Rocket Assisted Take Off system (RATO) for military aircraft, which could help
our warplanes take off from shorter runways, especially in the Himalayas. By that evening,
with the approval of the Prime Minister, India took up development of indigenous device to
help assist short run take offs by high performance military aircraft based on Russian
RATO system. Kalam was to head the project, which was completed within 18 months.
 
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