Did you know that Krishi Darshan, a TV programme for farmers that runs on Doordarshan even today, was an attempt by noted physicist and space scientist Vikram Sarabhai, to convince the Government of India to invest in satellite technology? Or that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was able to establish its Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station near Thiruvananthapuram, thanks to Rt Rev Peter Pereira, the Bishop of Trivandrum, who agreed to surrender the St Mary Magdalene Church and the land around it to ISRO, for the greater good of the country?

With the recent non-stop coverage of the Chandrayaan-2 mission, ISRO has been in the public eye like never before. Such is the public interest in the organization that every project or new launch makes it to the headlines today. But it was not always like this. The iconic photo of a rocket nose cone being taken for launch on a bicycle (cover image) is one of the most viral images in India. Perhaps no other image typifies the humble beginnings of ISRO, an organization that today seeks to conquer “galaxies far, far away”.