India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer

India’s Forgotten Rocket Pioneer PDF

Author: Gurbir Singh

Publisher: Astrotalkuk Publications

Published: 2020-01-01

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1913617033

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During 1934 and 1944 in Calcutta, Stephen Smith worked alone and unsupported on developing rocket transport. In 1935, he was the first to demonstrate the successful transport by a rocket of livestock, food and medicine. This book charts the story of Stephen H Smith, described by a contemporary as “the greatest one-man campaign for rocketry”. He dedicated his life to working alone in northeast India to develop a new revolutionary means of transport using only rocket power. The development of rockets in India is commonly understood to have ended with Tipu Sultan in 1799 and started again in 1963 with what is now called the Indian Space Research Organisation. However, in the intervening period, one man built and championed rockets, working alone in Calcutta. In 1925 he set up the Indian Air Mail Society, and it is amongst the global philatelic community where his work is still known but is almost entirely forgotten from the popular imagination in India. On 14 February 1891, Stephen H Smith, the only son of a tea plantation manager originally from Norfolk, England, was born in the Strawberry Hill region of Shillong. Between 1934 and 1944, he conducted over 200 rocket experiments to demonstrate the utility of a rocket as a means of transport. Small self-funded groups to develop rockets were established in USSR, USA, Britain, Australia and Germany. From these groups, Sergei Korolev and Wernher von Braun emerged and competed in the epic space race that resulted in Sputnik, Gagarin and Apollo 11. Stephen H Smith was their contemporary but worked alone and unsupported in India. Long after he had died, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the American Airmail Society in 1989. In 1992, a year after the centenary of his birth, the Indian government celebrated his achievements by issuing a stamp and a first-day cover dedicated to his work. Today his work is found in official NASA publications, the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and the National Air and Space Museum. This new study of his contacts with the King of Sikkim, King George V, with a member of parliament in London and a 25-year-long correspondence with a Swiss philatelist reveals in his own words his struggle to attain recognition and support for his work. His reluctant attempt to work with the military authorities in India during World War II ended in frustration. His multiple attempts in 1949 to contact the Governor of Bengal and Prime Minister Nehru in the newly independent India failed to generate a response.

India's Forgotten Rocket Pioneer

India's Forgotten Rocket Pioneer PDF

Author: Gurbir Singh

Publisher:

Published: 2020-04-12

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 9781913617004

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During 1934 and 1944 in Calcutta, Stephen Smith worked alone and unsupported on developing rocket transport. In 1935, he was the first to demonstrate the successful transport by a rocket of livestock, food and medicine. This book charts the story of Stephen H Smith, described by a contemporary as "the greatest one-man campaign for rocketry". He dedicated his life working alone in northeast India to develop a new revolutionary means of transport using only rocket power. The development of rockets in India is commonly understood to have ended with Tipu Sultan in 1799 and started again in 1963 with what is now called the Indian Space Research Organisation. However, in the intervening period, rockets were built, and championed by one man, working alone in Calcutta. In 1925 he set up the Indian Air Mail Society and it is amongst the global philatelic community where his work is still known but is almost entirely forgotten from the popular imagination in India. On 14 February 1891, Stephen H Smith, the only son of a tea plantation manager originally from Norfolk, England was born in the Strawberry Hill region of Shillong. Between 1934 and 1944, he conducted over 200 rocket experiments to demonstrate the utility of a rocket as a means of transport. Small self-funded groups to develop rockets were established in USSR, USA, Britain, Australia and Germany. It was from these groups that Sergei Korolev and Wernher von Braun emerged and competed in the epic space race that resulted in Sputnik, Gagarin and Apollo 11. Stephen H Smith was their contemporary but worked alone and unsupported in India. Long after he had died, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame by the American Airmail Society in 1989. In 1992, a year after the centenary of his birth, the Indian government celebrated his achievements by issuing a stamp and a first-day cover dedicated to his work. Today his work is found in official NASA publications, the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society and in the National Air and Space Museum. This new study of his contacts with the King of Sikkim, with King George V, with a member of parliament in London and a 25 year-long correspondence with a Swiss philatelist reveal in his own words his struggle to attain recognition and support for his work. His reluctant attempt to work with the military authorities in India during World War II ended in frustration. His multiple attempts in 1949 to contact the Governor of Bengal and Prime Minister Nehru in the newly independent India failed to generate a response.

My Personal History of The British Interplanetary Society

My Personal History of The British Interplanetary Society PDF

Author: Leslie Johnson

Publisher: Astrotalkuk Publications

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 1913617084

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This is the story of the founding of the British Interplanetary Society Liverpool in 1933 before it relocated to London in 1937. It is the personal meticulous recollection of Leslie J Johnson who was the BIS’s First Hon. Secretary but later its treasurer, editor of the bulletin and the journal and a vice president. Published for the first time, this manuscript was written using a manual typewritten and rich first-hand source material consisting of thousands of handwritten letters. As the Hon. secretary, he was the first contact for many now familiar names, including a teenage Arthur C Clarke in 1933, and from Dr W Olaf Stapledon, a professor at Liverpool University, writers EF Russell, Walter H Gillings, Edward John Carnell, Stephen Smith, a rocket mail experimenter in India, Herr Will Ley, a rocket engineer from Germany. Many who joined the BIS were interested in reading and writing science fiction, including Johnson. One of his earliest stories, “Satellites of Death”, was published in 1938, two decades before the launch of Sputnik. The first passenger railway, military submarine and programable computer emerged in the Northwest of England for the first time. It was from this generation that gifted and visionary individuals emerged in pursuit of the idea and ideals of interplanetary space travel. Similar societies were founded around the world at about the same time but only the BIS continues to the present day contributing to British space policy and innovative ideas for spaceflight for communication satellites, human spaceflight and interstellar travel. As the BIS approaches its 90th year, it can celebrate some momentous achievements, including being a founding member in 1950 of the International Astronautical Federation which is now seen as the global premier body that binds the international space community.

The Indian Space Programme

The Indian Space Programme PDF

Author: Gurbir Singh

Publisher: Astrotalkuk Publications

Published: 2017-10-17

Total Pages: 507

ISBN-13: 0956933769

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Fifty years in the making, India's Space Programme is fulfilling the vision of its founders and delivering services from space that touch the lives of 1.3 billion people every day. In addition to operating a collection of satellites for weather, Earth observation, navigation and communication today, India has a spacecraft orbiting Mars and a space telescope in Earth orbit. This book provides the big picture of India's long association with science, from historical figures like Aryabhata and Bhaskara to Homi Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai, the key architects of its space program. It covers the scientific contribution of Indian scientists during the European Enlightenment and industrial revolution. It traces the technological development of Tipu Sultan's use of rockets for war in the 1780s; the all-but-forgotten contribution of Stephen H Smith's use of rockets as a means of transport in 1935 in northern India; and the emergence of Sriharikota – India's spaceport, the heart of India's modern Space Programme. • A detailed account of how a fishing village in Kerala was transformed into a space centre and used to launch India's first rocket into space on 21 November 1963. • A detailed summary of India's space infrastructure – launch vehicles, deep space network, Telemetry, Tracking and Command and space assets in orbit. • Description of how the ordinary people of India benefit from the services delivered by the space programme • Why India chose to go to the Moon and Mars and how it got there. • The prospects for India's ambitions in space for human spaceflight, national security and scientific exploration • An analysis of how India's Space Programme may play out on the global stage. Will it compete or collaborate with China, USA and Russia in space? This detailed work, in 645 pages, 29 tables and 9 appendices, is richly illustrated with 140+ illustrations (some images published for the first time) and supported by over 1,000 references. It is written for the non-specialist, offering a big-picture view.

European-Russian Space Cooperation

European-Russian Space Cooperation PDF

Author: Brian Harvey

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-04-10

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 3030676862

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The story of European-Russian collaboration in space is little known and its importance all too often understated. Because France was the principal interlocutor between these nations, such cooperation did not receive the attention it deserved in English-language literature. This book rectifies that history, showing how Russia and Europe forged a successful partnership that has continued to the present day. Space writer Brian Harvey provides an in-depth picture of how this European-Russian relationship evolved and what factors—scientific, political and industrial—propelled it over the decades. The history begins in the cold war period with the first collaborative ventures between the Soviet Union and European countries, primarily France, followed later by Germany and other European countries. Next, the chapters turn to the missions when European astronauts flew to Russian space stations, the Soyuz rocket made a new home in European territory in the South American jungle and science missions were flown to study deep space. Their climax is the joint mission to explore Mars, called ExoMars, which has already sent a mission to Mars. Through this close examination of these European-Russian efforts, readers will appreciate an altogether new perspective on the history of space exploration, no longer defined by competition, but rather by collaboration and cooperation.

Sophie's World

Sophie's World PDF

Author: Jostein Gaarder

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2007-03-20

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 1466804270

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One day Sophie comes home from school to find two questions in her mail: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" Before she knows it she is enrolled in a correspondence course with a mysterious philosopher. Thus begins Jostein Gaarder's unique novel, which is not only a mystery, but also a complete and entertaining history of philosophy.

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