From Space to Sea: My ISRO Journey and Beyond

It is an outstanding and flawless book that help you dwelve into Indian Space Exploration

You would have heard a lot about India launching rockets, space missions only in the “last decade” or so. If so, then this book is for you to read.The book traces the history of ISRO back to its inception days and was written by one of the Engineers who joined ISRO in the early 60s as a trainee Engineer and rose to become a Director at ISRO, responsible for developing the key elements of space-tech – the propulsion systems.The progress of ISRO, from the humble beginning of launching sounding rockets from Thumba (near Trivandrum) to the launch of GSLV Mk III from SHAR, sending Chandrayan and Mangalyan missions on their way, is well captured and documented in this book.The Appendix section, at end of the book, captures the various types of propulsion systems and fuels for the launch vehicles and spacecrafts like satellites. It also explains the control systems, telemetry etc. It’s highly recommended to read the Appendix first before reading the book.ISRO started as INCOSPAR (Indian National COmmittee for SPAce Research) created by the Prime Minister, under Dr. Vikram Sarabhai in the early 60s. It attracted young and talented space-tech Engineers from the US, who wanted to participate in nation building, the author of the book being one of them.The books takes the reader through the development journey of propulsion technologies at ISRO and then it’s application in launch vehicles.

Parts of the book (the first four chapters) are easy and straightforward. As expected, no book on ISRO misses out the triumvirate - Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and Brahm Prakash. The technical part requires minimum basic science background. Otherwise, it will be tedious and uninteresting. Non-techies can safely skip the appendix and glossary.The book will definitely be useful to students planning to pursue a career in Space or Ocean engineering. Kudos to the author for sharing his experience and knowledge both in space and ocean technology.

Main grouse of the author is that he was denied opportunities given to his peers and juniors. Friends in the know of ISRO tell me that few good engineers left the organization because of Muthunayagam's partisan attitude. Therefore, it looks to be a simple case of "reap what you sow".

Must be read if u are interested in isro

Excellent book. A must read for every Space scientist.

Whole book is about self praise & belittling others efforts. Blaming superiors is in bad taste -- washing dirty linen in public.

Technical

I liked reading the life story of Dr. Muthunayagam from his youth through his illustrious professional career working in the government of India. He gives credit to others and also writes of his own contributions to space and oceanic research.