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The term space technology, or ‘space technologies’, is commonly used to refer to the diverse, inter-disciplinary bundle of core technologies involving the development and operation of artificial satellites, spacecraft, launch vehicles and space stations as well as the related support infrastructure, equipment and technological processes. Naturally, the things referred to in this description are so distant from our day to day life; both physically and psychologically, that a nexus between ‘space’ technologies and the more ‘earthly’ issues of socio-economic development, as suggested by the title of this article, might even seem somewhat improbable.

In fact, the roots of this common perception of space technology can be clearly traced to the cold war that existed between the two superpowers, the then Soviet Union and the United States. Any major leap in ‘space’ by either nation would give them a clear strategic edge over their rival in their battle for supremacy in military capability and hence geo-political strength.  Obviously, the “space race”, which constituted an essential part of the cold war, did in the meantime result in an emergence of a major proportion of the early breakthroughs in space technology.
 

"Obviously, the “space race”, which constituted an essential part of the cold war, did in the meantime resulted in emergence of a major proportion of the early breakthroughs in space technology"

On October 4, 1957, a Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile launched ‘Sputnik’, the world’s first artificial satellite and the first man-made object to be placed in outer space. In 1958, the U.S. launched its own satellite, Explorer I, and in the same year, President Eisenhower signed a public order creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a federal agency dedicated to space exploration.

Then in April 1961, the Soviet Union had a gigantic leap - the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin creating history becoming the first person to orbit the outer space, travelling in the spacecraft Vostok 1. In the following month came President John F. Kennedy’s bold, public claim that the U.S. would land a man on the moon before the end of the decade, which eventually came true.

‘Space Technologies’ thus accounted for a major proportion of GDP of both US and USSR during the time. When it comes to the subject of satellite communication, the conceptual possibility of intercontinental radio communication over extra-terrestrial radio relays, through artificial satellites placed in the geostationary orbit, 36,000 km above the equator, was put forward by Arthur C. Clarke in 1945.  This was 12 years before any form of artificial satellite could be placed in orbit (as it was in 1957 that the Soviet Union succeeded in placing Sputnik I in an orbit of approximately 100 km altitude above the earth). In fact, the first geostationary satellite, Syncom 3 was launched in August 1964, and was used for communication across the Pacific starting with television coverage of the 1964 Summer Olympics. The first commercial telecommunication satellite named ‘Early Bird’ was launched in April 1965, and placed in orbit enabling intercontinental communication across the Atlantic. 

At the time of Arthur C. Clarke’s conceptual postulation of satellite communication, the ensemble of technologies that would subsequently come to be known as “space technologies”, and which would be necessary to bring his concept into the realm of technological feasibility was yet to begin evolving.

The technology-boundary delimiting the military and the civilian applications being an admittedly porous one, the space technology frontiers started making rapid inroads into civilian applications, in both United States and the USSR, closely followed by other nations entering into the space domain.  In the Asian region Japan, China and India were early entrants to the scene.

India’s space programme, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2013, expressly claimed to have a civilian application-focus from the beginning.  India’s advances in space technology have nevertheless made a strategic contribution in bringing the country within the ranks of those having nuclear missile capabilities besides the civilian applications.

While Dr. Vickram Sarabhai is regarded as the father of India’s space programme, who created India’s vision for space at a very early stage of development of space technology in the world, it was Dr. Abdul Kalam, who later became the 11th President of India, who not only brought India to the big league of global space community, but also combined the strategic integration of the indigenous developed technological advancements in space and nuclear technologies to develop its nuclear missile capabilities.

Dr. Kalam was the Project Director of the programme to develop India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III), which, after more than 7 years of research and development, successfully injected the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980, heralding India’s entry into the exclusive ‘Space Club’. Dr. Kalam was responsible for the evolution of ISRO’s launch vehicle programme, particularly the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) configuration. After working for two decades in ISRO and mastering launch vehicle technologies, Dr. Kalam took up the responsibility of developing Indigenous Guided Missiles at the Defence Research and Development Organization, as the Chief Executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), under which the development and operationalisation of AGNI and PRITHVI Missiles took place. His strategic contribution was in providing leadership for building indigenous capability in critical technologies through networking of multiple institutions.

Turning toward Sri Lanka, harnessing of the potential of space technologies in realization of our national development goals, basically needs development of our technology capabilities in two areas.  In the first place, the vast potential that satellite derived earth observation data, products and tools offer in enhancing the performance across a diverse range of fields including agriculture, irrigation, water resources management, forest and wildlife management, environment and climate change, coastal and maritime environment management, transport and logistics, and disaster management etc., should be optimally reaped.  

The obvious limitation in this respect is lack of access to earth observation satellite data.  The prudent strategy to address this would be to develop a national hub for receiving and re-distribution of earth observation satellite data from global earth observation satellites.  In the meantime, developing our own basic space technology capabilities, by developing our own earth observation satellite would be important.  Given the substantial commitment of funds and specialist human resources required for those programs, continuity and sustainability would be of paramount importance.