This island was chosen in 1969 forsetting up of a satellite launch station. Features like goodlaunch azimuth corridor for various missions, advantage of earth's rotation for eastward launchings, nearness to the equator, and large uninhabited area as safety zone all make Sriharikota Range, popularly known as 'SHAR', an ideal spaceport. Off Sullurupeta a small town in Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh on the national highway connecting Chennai and Kolkata a 20 minutes drive towards the east on the road laid across the Pulicat Lake takes one to Sriharikota. The Centre has been renamed as 'Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR' on September 5, 2002, in memory of Prof. Satish Dhawan, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The island covers an area of about 43,360 acres (175 sq.km)Satellite imagery of Sriharikota island with a coastline of 50 km. Eucalyptus and Casuarina plantation and scrub jungle cover most part of the island. The wild life consists of jackals, wild boars and snakes. Signs of cultural past can be seen all over the island, left behind by the people who lived here long before the spaceport was born. The native yanadi tribe has been rehabilitated and is well looked after. Both the Southwest and the Northeast monsoons serve the island. However, rains are heavy only from October to December thus leaving a large number of sunny days suitable for out-door operations like static tests and launchings. When the rains fill up the Pulicat Lake during the northeast monsoon, thousands of migratory birds visit the island from far away places, turning Sriharikota into a veritable paradise for ornithologists and nature lovers.
SHAR has a unique combination of facilities, such as a solid propellant production plant, a rocket motor static test facility, launch complexes for a variety of rockets, telemetry, telecommand, tracking, data acquisition and processing facilities, and other support services. The first flight-test of'Rohini-125', a small sounding rocket took place from here on October 9, 1971. Since then the facilities here were expanded to meet the growing needs of ISRO.
More Information Visit Official Site:http://www.shar.gov.in
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