PTI
Bangalore, Jul 22: India's first space university is all set to take wings next month seeking to groom tailor-made experts to fuel the country's satellite and rocket programmes.
"August middle is our target", said G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, which is setting up the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and expected to meet the high technology requirements of ISRO.
It would initially operate from the campus of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, a lead centre of ISRO, which will create a full-fledged infrastructure for IIST on a picturesque site in Ponmudi near the Kerala state capitalin about two years.
The Institute, which offers technically tuned courses in space science and technology, has already attracted some of India's bright minds encouraging India's space agency. "The response is really good. Original plan was to take from the so called extended list of IIT JEE. But we could see large number of applicants from the main list of IIT itself", Nair said.
ISRO sources said around 150 students were expected to be enrolled in aeronautical and avionics engineering and integrated MSc in space sciences in the first academic year.
Nair said ISRO came up with the idea of setting up of the institute as it was faced with a "very alarming situation" in terms of attracting the right talent for India's space programmes.