Place · rocket launch complex · India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
Also known as SDSC, SDSC SHAR, SHAR, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
India's primary rocket launch complex on Sriharikota Island on the Andhra Pradesh coast, operated by ISRO from 1971. SDSC-SHAR hosts all three of ISRO's active launch vehicles (PSLV, GSLV Mk II and LVM3) from its two active launch pads, and has conducted every major Indian satellite launch since the Rohini satellite on SLV-3 in 1980 — Chandrayaan-1 (2008), Mangalyaan (2013), Chandrayaan-2 (2019), Chandrayaan-3 (2023) and the Aditya-L1 solar mission (2023) all flew from here. The site was named for Satish Dhawan, Sarabhai's successor as ISRO chairman from 1972 to 1984. The surrounding Pulicat Lake Bird Sanctuary and the Sriharikota mangrove give the complex an unusual ecological setting.
- Date
- 1971–None
- Function
- Science & medicine
- Patron dynasty
- Indian Union
- Tradition
- Standard reference; INTACH, ASI and municipal records; institutional histories.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 13.720, 80.230
Connections (3)
- Founded byVikram Sarabhai
Vikram Sarabhai founded the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in 1971 as India's primary rocket launch complex, extending beyond the earlier TERLS equatorial facility at Thumba. The 1972 handover of ISRO's chairmanship from Sarabhai to Dhawan after Sarabhai's death followed the site's founding; the complex was renamed for Dhawan in 2002.
- Worked atA. P. J. Abdul Kalam
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam worked at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre as SLV-3 project director in 1980 when the launcher put Rohini into orbit on 18 July 1980, making India the sixth country to achieve independent satellite launch. Kalam's rise through ISRO from the SLV-3 project at Sriharikota through the Agni and Prithvi missile programmes to the 1998 Pokhran-II tests runs continuously through the SDSC facility.
- OperatesISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru
ISRO HQ operates the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota as its primary launch complex.