Vikram Sarabhai

Vikram Sarabhai grew up in a family that loved science, art and new ideas. He looked up at the sky one day and asked a bold question: why shouldn't India, still a young country, dream of going to space too?

He gathered a small group of clever engineers, and together they launched India's very first rocket from a tiny fishing village called Thumba, next to a coconut grove. From that humble beginning grew the Indian Space Research Organisation — ISRO — which today sends spacecraft to the Moon and Mars.

Vikram Sarabhai was born in 1919 in Ahmedabad, into a well-known industrial family. After studying physics at Cambridge, he came home and founded the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad in 1947.

He believed that even a developing country like India could use advanced science to solve everyday problems.

In 1969 he founded the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He argued that space technology could bring television, weather forecasting and telephone links to remote villages, and could 'leapfrog' India past older technologies.

He also helped set up the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, the Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association, and the Nehru Foundation for Development. He mentored young scientists like APJ Abdul Kalam.

When he died suddenly in 1971, he left behind a young space programme that has since gone on to reach the Moon, Mars and beyond.