U R Rao Satellite Centre (Ursc), Isro

U R Rao Satellite Centre is the lead centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) responsible for design, development, assembly & integration of communication, navigation, remote sensing, scientific and small satellite missions. The specialised teams of scientists, engineers and technicians of ISAC have built more than 75 complex & advanced satellites for various applications in areas of telecommunications, television broadcasting, VSAT services, tele-medicine, tele-education, navigation, weather forecasting, disaster warning, search and rescue operations, earth observations, natural resource management, scientific and space science etc. With the objective of taking the benefits of space technology to the length & breadth of the society, ISAC is actively involved in creating cost-effective space infrastructure for the country. When a conscious decision emerged in 1972 to build the first Indian Satellite, the Indian Scientific Satellite Project (ISSP) was formed in Bangalore. The IISc campus initially housed the project activities until it moved to the makeshift industrial sheds at Peenya, Bangalore. With practically no prior art existing within the country and with sparse infrastructure put together from scratch, the ISSP team developed the first Indian Satellite ARYABHATA. With this success, the fledgling space activity soon developed into a full-fledged programme with national priorities. Thus was born the ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) in 1976. In 1984 the Centre moved to the present 32 acre campus at Old Airport Road, Vimanapura in Bangalore. To cater to the growing need of satellite for various applications, ISRO Satellite Integration & Testing Establishment (ISITE) was established in 2006 in a 110 acre campus which is about 8 km away from the present campus. ISITE has a large clean room and state-of-the-art electronics fabrication and test facilities under one roof for the assembly, integration and testing of communication satellites.