APJ Abdul Kalam

Chapters 9 – 12

1. Why was Sriharikota chosen to be the site of the rocket launch station?


In February 1969, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Thumba and dedicated TERLS to International Space Community. She also commissioned India’s first filament winding machine in their laboratory.

In 1969, Prof. Sarabhai decided to plunge ahead in building and launching our own satellites. He chose the east coast, so that vehicle could take the advantage of the earth’s west to east coast rotation. He finally selected Sriharikota Island, a hundred kilometers north of Madras. Thus, SHAR Rocket Launch Station was born. This Island was crescent shaped and had a maximum width of eight kilometers. It was along side the east coast line. It was the size of Chennai.

In 1968, Indian Rocket Society was formed. Prof.Sarabhai had picked a few scientists to give form to his dream of an Indian SLV. It came to be known as SLV – 3. Kalam felt honoured to be chosen as the Project Leader. He was also given the additional responsibility of designing the fourth stage of SLV-3.

Kalam was not a perfectionist. He preferred to learn by making mistakes. For that matter, he did not want to commit mistakes necessarily. He supported learning of his team members through successful and unsuccessful attempts.

Kalam laid the foundation for stage-IV on two rocks. His team members carried on the work. He was sorry that he could not spend enough time with them. At this stage, a professor from France, Dr. Curian, President of CNSE(Center Nationale de Etudes Spatiales). At France, they were developing the Diamont Launch Vehicles.

Dr. Curian was a thorough professional. He helped Kalam in realizing his target. Dr. Curian was so impressed by their plan that he inquired if they could create the Diamont’s fourth stage.



Work on Diamont’s fourth stage began simultaneously. Abdul Kalam gave instructions in writing. He wanted the team to meet once in a week. Dr. Curian was very appreciative. He said that they had achieved everything in a year’s time, what their counterpart could hardly manage in three years.

A good leader commands commitment and participation from her on his team. He has to get the team together to share whatever little development has been achieved. The slight loss of time was the very small price to pay for that commitment and sense of teamwork. Kalam could spot out good leadership qualities in his small group of workers. They existed in all levels.

Kalam continued to observe his colleagues carefully if they had the interest and willingness to experiment. He also started to listen and observe anyone who showed the slightest promise.

Kalam continued to work towards modifying SLV-3’s stage IV design to suit the Diamont airframe. After two years, when they were about the deliver it to CNES, the French suddenly cancelled the programme, saying they did not need our design any more. This was a great shock to Kalam and his team.

Kalam got over this disappointment, as he was busy with RATO.

The SLV was slowly taking shape. Thumba was now a perfect launch pad for SLV. On one occasion, Prof. Sarabhai identified a person who could be given the responsigbility for developing a tele-command system for SLV-3. Two men were competent to carry out this task- Prof. U.R.Rao and Prof. G. Madhavan Nair.

Abdul Kalam was impressed by Madhavan Nair’s dedication and abilities. He went out of his way to demonstrate his highly reliable tele-command system. Prof. Sarabhai was impressed. He later on became the Director of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

2. Prof. Vikram Sarabhai was the author’s mentor. What does he say about Sarabhai’s contribution to Indian Science programmes? Use the successful testing of RATO from Chapter 10 to give an example.


Prof. Sarabhai thought that mistakes were inevitable but manageable. To illustrate, once he came to Thumba, on one of his routine visits, he was shown the operation of the nose cone jettisoning mechanism. Prof. Sarabhai was asked to formally activate the system. To their horror, when he pressed the button, there wasn’t any reaction.

They asked him to wait for a few minutes, while they re-forged some connections. When he pressed the button for a second time, the pyros were fired and the nose cone was jettisoned.

Prof. Sarabhai congratulated them. He then called Kalam and talked to him of rock launching station, facilities like launch pad, block houses, radar, telementary and so on. Slowly he brought about the incident that took place, when he had gone to activate the system. In spite of reprimanding him, he went directly to solve the problem. They lacked a single roof to carry out system integration of all rockets and rocket systems. At last he took up a decision to set up Rocket Engineering Section. Prof. Sarabhai was a vision. He could use errors to encourage new ideas. The failure led to the birth of a rocket engineering laboratory.

Abdul Kalam used to brief Prof. Sarabhai after every missile panel meeting. After one such meeting, Prof. Sarabhai was visiting Thumba to review the SLV design.

Abdul Kalam reached Trivandrum, as he was supposed to meet Prof. Sarabhai at the airport. As he reached Trivandrum, there was a pall of gloom that hung in the airport. Unfortunately, Prof. Sarabhai had passed away early that morning, following a cardiac arrest.

Prof. Sarabhai was the Mahatma of Indian Science. His vision defined the country’s space programme. He generated leadership qualities and inspired them through both ideas and examples. He had trained many scientists and engineers who were later to take charge of important scientific projects.

As a tribute to the man, who tailed hard for its existence, the whole complex at Thumba was merged together to form an integrated space center and named it as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

The RATO system was successfully tested on 8th October 1972 at Bareilly Air Force Station in Uttar Pradesh. The Indian RATO was produced at Rs. 17,000 a piece, while it was imported at a cost of Rs. 33,000 a piece. The vision of Prof. Sarabhai had finally comes fruit.

3. What, according to the author, does one need to be a successful team leader?

In February 1969, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Thumba and dedicated TERLS to International Space Community. She also commissioned India’s first filament winding machine in their laboratory.

In 1969, Prof. Sarabhai decided to plunge ahead in building and launching our own satellites. He chose the east coast, so that vehicle could take the advantage of the earth’s west to east coast rotation. He finally selected Sriharikota Island, a hundred kilometers north of Madras. Thus, SHAR Rocket Launch Station was born. This Island was crescent shaped and had a maximum width of eight kilometers. It was along side the east coast line. It was the size of Madras.

In 1968, Indian Rocket Society was formed. Prof.Sarabhai had picked a few scientists to give form to his dream of an Indian SLV. It came to be known as SLV – 3. Kalam felt honoured to be chosen as the Project Leader. He was also given the additional responsibility of designing the fourth stage of SLV-3.

Kalam was not a perfectionist. He preferred to learn by making mistakes. For that matter, he did not want to commit mistakes necessarily. He supported learning of his team members through successful and unsuccessful attempts.

Kalam laid the foundation for stage-IV on two rocks. His team members carried on the work. He was sorry that he could not spend enough time with them. At this stage, a professor from France, Dr. Curian, President of CNSE (Center Nationale de Etudes Spatiales). At France, they were developing the Diamont Launch Vehicles.

Dr. Curian was a thorough professional. He helped Kalam in realizing his target. Dr. Curian was so impressed by their plan that he inquired if they could create the Diamont’s fourth stage.

Work on Diamont’s fourth stage began simultaneously. Abdul Kalam gave instructions in writing. He wanted the team to meet once in a week. Dr. Curian was very appreciative. He said that they had achieved everything in a year’s time, what their counterpart could hardly manage in three years.

A good leader commands commitment and participation from her on his team. He has to get the team together to share whatever little development has been achieved. The slight loss of time was the very small price to pay for that commitment and sense of teamwork. Kalam could spot out good leadership qualities in his small group of workers. They existed in all levels.

Abdul Kalam continued to observe his colleagues carefully if they had the interest and willingness to experiment. He also started to listen and observe anyone who showed the slightest promise.

Abdul Kalam continued to work towards modifying SLV-3’s stage IV design to suit the Diamont airframe. After two years, when they were about the deliver it to CNES, the French suddenly cancelled the programme, saying they did not need our design any more. This was a great shock to Kalam and his team.

Abdul Kalam got over this disappointment, as he was busy with RATO.

The SLV was slowly taking shape. Thumba was now a perfect launch pad for SLV. On one occasion, Prof. Sarabhai identified a person who could be given the responsigbility for developing a tele-command system for SLV-3. Two men were competent to carry out this task- Prof. U.R.Rao and Prof. G. Madhavan Nair.

Abdul Kalam was impressed by Madhavan Nair’s dedication and abilities. He went out of his way to demonstrate his highly reliable tele-command system. Prof. Sarabhai was impressed. He later on became the Director of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).


4. ‘SLVs and missiles can be called first cousins’ Describe how?


A massive missile development project had been taken up by DRDO at Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad. It was the development of surface-to-air missile.

The RATO project was abandoned and Narayanan was chosen as the leader of DRDO, to make new missile. Narayanan was a man of tremendous energy. He gathered around him a strong group of enthusiastic people.

Abdul Kalam was totally involved in SLV-3 project. SLV-3 was taking shape. Kalam’s team was trekking towards success on several individual paths. The emphasis was on communication particularly within the team.

While working on SLV-3, Kalam was able to define the problem and slove them through effective communication. At one of the space science council review meetings, Kalam quite frustrated with procurement delays, complained agitatedly about the bureaucracy practiced by the Controller of Accounts and Financial Adviser of VSSC. Dr. Brahm Prakash was surprised by such blunt accusations.

5. The author makes an interesting differentiation between communication and conversation. What does he say? Elaborate on this in your own words.

Abdul Kalam explained the differentiation between communication and conversation, where as he was a good communicator but a terrible conversationalist.

Communication can define as the exchange of information between individuals through a common system of symbols. It is a two party affair which aims at passing on or receiving a specific piece of information. Most of the people did not get communication because they confuse with conversation.

Conversation has full of friendly remarks and informal way of talking, it lacks any useful information. Kalam was a terrible conversationalist.