With the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lining up some high-profile missions for the immediate future, ISRO units in the district, which play a critical role in each and every launch from the Sriharikota spaceport, have struck it big in P Chidambaram’s 2013-14 budget.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thumba has been earmarked Rs 732.87 crore, while the ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), Vattiyoorkavu, has got Rs 69.01 crore. The Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), ISRO’s ‘school’ for moulding future space scientists, has been earmarked Rs 150.50 crore for the 2013-14 financial year.
The budget has also set apart Rs 439.09 crore for the three Liquid Propulsion Systems Centres (LPSC) of ISRO, of which one is situated at Valiyamala in Thiruvananthapuram district. The total outlay for the Department of Space is Rs 6,792 crore for 2013-14. Substantial enhancements have been given to sectors like science and technology, space and atomic energy ‘despite constraints’, says the budget document.
Big projects like the indigenous cryogenic technology and the Mars exploration project slated for this year aside, ISRO units here, particularly VSSC, have also taken up infrastructure expansion works.