In the 1960s, when India’s aerospace programme was just taking off, a beach just outside Thiruvananthapuram served as the lab for several experiments in aeronautics. Scientists, including Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, converted an out-of-use church near the beach into their office.

In a recent book, Ramabhadran Aravamudan, a former director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and of the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bengaluru, writes about this place and that time in India’s space odyssey:

WHEN: 1960s

WHERE: Thumba, northern suburb of Thiruvanathapuram

“Since there were very few concrete buildings, the church of Mary Magdalene around which all our initial activity was centred continued to be a focal point. This church had an interesting history. Like many other ancient churches in this part of the world, this one too could trace its roots back the sixteenth century when St Francis Xavier came to Kerala. St Francis was a zealous missionary who was responsible for converting to Christianity many of the fishing communities living along the coast. Legend has it that he built the first structure – a prayer hall with mud walls and a roof made of coconut frond thatch. This structure apparently lasted nearly a hundred years until the Jesuits replaced it with a church dedicated to St Bartholomew.

The present church came into existence at the turn of the twentieth century. In its new avatar it became the church of Mary Magdalene when the fishermen who were building the structure found a beautiful sandalwood statue of the saint lying on the beach. This statue was consecrated and placed on the altar of the new church. An unusually long log of wood that had drifted in from the sea was erected as the flag post and the church became functional.

When we took it over, the church building, as we called it, was one of the few brick and mortar structures in the area. Although it was a modest-sized church, it had a special aura. It had ceased to be a place of worship, but for us pioneers at ISRO it was a very special hub where some of our most exciting projects were conceived.

Its high-raftered roof was a sanctuary to swarms of pigeons. The altar in front of the statue of Mary Magdalene was left untouched as we had promised the fisherfolk that this sacred area would be preserved as it was. And many of the early rockets, including the very first Nike-Apache, were assembled in front of the altar. The central portion of the church became a bustling office space. Later, assemblies took place in the newly built rocket assembly hall. Once that move occurred, the various wings of the church were used to provide temporary accommodation to the scientists and the support staff.

By the mid-sixties, plans were afoot to start a space science and technology centre in the picturesque Veli Hills close by. A couple of scientists working in foreign universities and laboratories had already been recruited so that they could start planning the future programmes. Many of them had PhDs from prestigious foreign universities and they arrived in Trivandrum bag and baggage, families in tow, directly from abroad.

And so, the church building came in handy once more! The main assembly wing of the church was partitioned into cubicles. The newly arrived scientists sat in these makeshift offices and went to work on the preliminary planning and recruitment of staff. We had the basic facilities in place now, but we all had to live with the flocks of pigeons and their offspring!

Visitors, especially other scientists coming from abroad, were often taken aback by this strange sight. Many of them made appreciative noises about the innovative spirit of Indians and lauded our passion for and determination to enter the space age despite the hurdles. But for us, these were not hurdles – we were doing exciting things and over the years the church had become our home and the pigeons our family.

As the years rolled by and more structures came up, the church building served as a general-purpose covered space that could be used as a stop-gap area. Finally, this iconic building was converted into a modern space museum with audiovisual presentations and models. Today, it attracts hordes of school children and many visitors who love the special conducted tours of the museum.

We also had a number of old but usable brick structures scattered across the range. For a long time these served as office spaces for various sections such as the construction division, the security division and the canteen. The bishop’s residence adjoining the church was the office of the test director of TERLS and some senior engineers until the control centre was built. A small primary school building close to the launch pad temporarily served as a launch office and was subsequently converted into a technical library.

All the buildings were hardly a few metres away from the seashore which was dotted with hundreds of coconut trees. I could walk out of my office right on to the beach for some fresh air whenever I wanted. The fishermen continued to claim the beach as their natural fishing zone and their nets lay on the sands. They would fish and move across the beach, clearing the area just a few hours before a launch.”

Extracted with permission from ISRO: A Personal History by R. Aravamudan, Gita Aravamudan (Harper Collins India)