Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian space agency, founded in 1969 to develop an independent Indian space program. Its headquarters are in Bangalore (Bengaluru). Its chief executive is a chairman, who is also chairman of the Indian government’s Space Commission and the secretary of the Department of Space.

ISRO’s first satellite, Aryabhata, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1975. Rohini, the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle (the Satellite Launch Vehicle 3) was launched in 1980. ISRO subsequently developed two other rockets: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle for putting satellites into polar orbit and the Geostationary Space Launch Vehicle for placing satellites into geostationary orbit. These rockets have launched communications satellites, Earth-observation satellites, and, in 2008, Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the Moon. ISRO plans to put two astronauts into orbit in 2015.