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VSSC had a small beginning at Thumba, a coastal village at Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala on the south west coast of India, in 1962.In the early 1960s, the Indian National Committee on Space Research (INCOSPAR), the Indian counterpart of the Committee for Space Research (COSPAR) of the United Nations, was formed under the leadership of Dr Vikram A Sarabhai. INCOSPAR pioneered studies on the phenomenon of equatorial electrojet, which is a narrow belt of electrons moving from west to east above the magnetic equator. The height at which this current flows, is beyond the reach of instrumented balloons and too low for satellites. The best way to study the phenomenon is to launch instrumented rockets (sounding rockets) into this region to make in-situ measurements. Thumba was a unique choice because of its proximity to the geomagnetic equator. The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS) was established in 1962 for this purpose under UN sponsorship.

In the beginning, the ancient St. Mary's Magdalene Church, graciously dedicated by the local inhabitants at the altar of science, served as the office and the laboratories. The ‘Bishop's House’ forming part of the Church, was once used as the office of Director, TERLS. The Church was later converted into a Space Museum which now attracts regular crowds including students and the public. On November 21, 1963, a two stage sounding rocket, 'Nike-Apache', was launched from TERLS marking the beginning of Space exploration in India.

Recognising the special value of this unique facility slightly off the magnetic equator, Smt. Indira Gandhi, the then Indian Prime Minister, dedicated TERLS to the United Nations on February 02, 1968. With this, there was a quantum jump in the scope for research in aeronomy and atmospheric sciences in India. In due course US, former USSR, Japan, France and Germany started launching sounding rockets from TERLS. While the initial sounding rockets were imported, India went on to establish indigenous capability in manufacturing and launching sounding rockets under the Rohini Sounding Rockets Programme (RSR). Gaining confidence from the RSR programme, the Space Science and Technology Centre (SSTC), established in 1965 at Veli hills, initiated research on the development of systems and components for launch vehicles. Rocket Propellant Plant (RPP) was commissioned in 1969 by the Chemical Engineering Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for the production of solid propellant blocks. With increase in the number of rockets fabricated, another facility called the Rocket Fabrication Facility (RFF) was commissioned in 1971, for undertaking production of rockets and hardware developed in SSTC. In 1969, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was formed under the Department of Atomic Energy to coordinate and conduct space research in the country. In 1970, the Hydrometeorological Services of the former USSR signed an agreement with ISRO to launch their meteorological sounding rockets, M-100, every week, from TERLS. This programme continued uninterruptedly till 1993. Besides these, we launched a series of our own sounding rockets named Rohini from TERLS.

In July 1972, TERLS, SSTC, RPP, RFF, Propellent Fuel Complex (PFC) and the Indian Scientific Satellite Project (ISSP), Bangalore came under the umbrella of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) with Prof Brahm Prakash as its Director. The ISSP at Bangalore was reconstituted as ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) in November 1976 and subsequently renamed as UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) which is presently the lead Centre for building satellites and developing associated satellite technologies. In 1972, Government of India constituted Department of Space (DOS) and Space Commission and brought ISRO under DOS.

In due course, the interest shifted to Satellite Launch Vehicles following the global trend. The organization developed the SLV-3 and followed by the augmented version ASLV. By 1990s, the PSLV was made operational and that started the upward journey to more glorious version including GSLV and LVM3.

List of Former HODs Click the Link given below
Former HODs