Published By: Sayan Paul

On This Day, 1975: Aryabhata Was Launched - How India Built Its First Satellite Against All Odds

Fifty years on, the launch of Aryabhata still stands as a proud reminder of India’s first big step into space.

Aryabhata was just the beginning. Launched on April 19, 1975, it was India’s first major step into space—and man, what a journey it sparked. With that one satellite, India made its mark on the global map. Since then, there’s been no looking back. From touching the Moon and Mars to now setting sights on the Sun and human spaceflight with Gaganyaan, we’ve come a long way. But every milestone we reach still leads us back to where it all began: Aryabhata. And it wasn’t easy. Back then, resources were limited, and challenges were many, but ISRO’s scientists made the impossible possible. As India's then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said about the mission, it was "an important event in India's efforts to harness the benefits of science."

Today, as we celebrate 50 years of Aryabhata, let’s discuss how India built its first satellite against all odds.

First, About the Mission

Aryabhata, launched on April 19, 1975, was India’s very first satellite—and a giant leap for the country’s space dreams. Built by ISRO and weighing just 360 kg, it was sent into orbit from the Soviet Union’s Kapustin Yar launch site aboard a Kosmos-3M rocket. The mission aimed to study X-ray astronomy, solar physics, and Earth’s upper atmosphere. Although a power glitch cut its data transmission within five days, the satellite stayed in orbit for years. More than just a science mission, Aryabhata proved that India had what it takes to build and launch a satellite—and that was just the beginning.

Notably, the satellite was named after the 6th-century astronomer and mathematician, Aryabhata.

A Dream That Took Flight

It all began in the late 1960s and early ’70s when Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, regarded as the father of India’s space program, laid down the blueprint for ISRO. His dream wasn’t about sending rockets to the Moon for glory, but about using space technology for welfare—like communication, weather forecasting, and education.

 

(Credit: ISRO)

After Sarabhai’s sudden death in 1971, the responsibility fell on young scientists like U.R. Rao (now known as "The Satellite Man of India") who had just returned from NASA. Rao would later recall, “We didn’t even have proper facilities to build a satellite. We just had a dream.”

Building Aryabhata—From Scratch

Imagine 1972, and a scrappy team of Indian scientists gets the green light to build Aryabhata, India’s first satellite. Sounds cool, I agree, except they’re starting from absolute zero. The mission kicked off with ISRO facing odds so steep, it’s a miracle they didn’t just pack up and go home. But with epic 'jugaad' (our desi art of making magic with nothing), they turned cow sheds into a launchpad for history.

 

(Credit: ISRO)

ISRO’s shiny new Satellite Centre in Bengaluru was not a thing yet. The team was squatting in temporary shacks, referred to as "tin sheds" due to their basic infrastructure. Despite these limitations, the team was driven by a shared goal and a commitment to excellence. “From clucks to cosmos, we made do,” quipped an early ISRO engineer, as recalled in R. Aravamudan’s 'ISRO: A Personal History’. Tools were basic. Equipment was mostly borrowed from friendly labs. And the budget? Let’s just say the $3.9 million (plus $1.3 million in foreign cash) felt like funding a moonshot with pocket change.

 

(Credit: indianhistorypics)

India didn’t have the tech for fancy satellite parts like solar cells or gyroscopes. Importing them was either too pricey or blocked by Cold War politics. So, the team got crafty. They built components in-house, hammering out gyroscopes and others. They roped in Indian firms like Central Electronics Limited, who’d never touched space tech but rolled up their sleeves anyway. Testing was a comedy of errors—without high-tech labs, they rigged setups with fans and prayers. “We were like kids building a rocket for a science fair, but it had to work,” Dr. Rao later laughed in an ISRO archive. Every nut and bolt was a battle, won with sweat, smarts, and a whole lot of, as already mentioned, 'jugaad'.

No Training, Just Brain and Guts

Again, this was the 1970s. No YouTube tutorials. No online forums. No “How to Build a Satellite” crash course. Jokes apart, most of the ISRO team had never even seen a real satellite before. "We were like kids trying to bake a cake with no recipe," Dr. Rao later shared.

However, they rolled up their sleeves and taught themselves from textbooks, international journals, and what little experience a few scientists brought from abroad. One major hurdle was thermal control—how to protect the satellite from extreme temperatures in space. The team used hand-polished mirrors and indigenous coatings after endless trial and error. It was science, but also a little bit of art and a lot of gut instinct along with patience.

The Soviet Hand—and Heart

Obviously, India didn’t have its own launch vehicle at the time, and ISRO was like, "Uh, anyone got a spare launch vehicle?" So, under an agreement with the USSR, the Soviet space agency agreed to launch Aryabhata on a Kosmos-3M rocket from Kapustin Yar.

 

(Credit: Indian Air Force)

But ISRO had to transport the satellite to Moscow. Which meant packing India’s first satellite (read pride, joy, and hard work) into a crate, flying it across the world, and praying that nothing got damaged along the way. When it reached the USSR, Aryabhata passed all tests with flying colors. On April 19, 1975, it was launched successfully, and India officially entered the space age.

The Power Glitch—and the Bigger Win

Aryabhata sent back data for just five days before a power failure ended communications. But nobody saw it as a failure. The real success was in building it - that too everything from scratch - in the first place. “Aryabhata was like our firstborn,” Rao once said, adding, “It taught us everything.”

 

(Credit: Prasar Bharati प्रसार भारती)

The experience laid the foundation for every satellite India has built since—from INSATs and IRS series to Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan, and Aditya-L1.

Fifty years later, Aryabhata still stands as a shining reminder of how much can be done with so little—only if you have the will. It was built in a newly independent nation with limited funds, no infrastructure, and zero experience. And yet, it became a symbol of hope and ambition. Today, every time we launch a space mission, we are, in some way, carrying Aryabhata with us.

References:

  1. ISRO Official Website – Aryabhata Overview: isro.gov.in
  2. The Hindu – “How Aryabhata, India’s first satellite, was built”
  3. Wikipedia – Aryabhata Satellite
  4. U.R. Rao’s interviews and memoirs (archived quotes and articles)
  5. R. Aravamudan - 'ISRO: A Personal History'