TERLS dedicated to the United Nations on 2 February 1968. Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station lies near the southern tip of mainland India, very close to earth's magnetic equator. It is currently used by ISRO for launching sounding rockets. The first rockets were assembled in former St Louis High School, which houses now a space museum.
Thumba was chosen as the ideal site for rocket launch due to the presence of equatorial electrojets. Thumba's location at 8°32'34" N and 76°51'32" E is ideal for low-altitude, upper atmosphere and ionosphere studies.
Thumba became well-known to the outsiders after the establishment of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), which was the first of that kind in India.
First Rocket Launch
The first sounding rocket, Nike-Apache, was launched rocket on 21 Nov 1963. Dr. H.G.S. Murthy, D Eswar Das, M R Kurup and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam were amongst the initial team of rocket engineers.
Thumba is a small fishing village situated close to the Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala.
Thumba is also one of the farthest points from Pakistan, China, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
TERLS Contact Address:
VSSC Housing Colony,
Thumba,
Thiruvananthapuram 695022
Kerala
