Rocket Launchpad | Hours before Chandrayaan-3 mission next week, Sriharikota to witness a unique ‘launch’

File Photo Thiruvananthapuram: The ‘rocket launchpad’ at the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) in Sriharikota will witness a unique ‘launch’, hours before the launch of Chandrayaan-3 for India’s much-awaited moon mission next week. It will not be the launch of a rocket, but the launch of a book. It may sound a bit strange, but the book ‘Prism: The Ancestral Abode of Rainbow’ will be released on SDSC-SHAR. This book is a collection of science related articles. On July 13, Chandrayaan-3 will be launched from LVM-III on SDSC-SHAR itself. It is written by National Award winning filmmaker and writer Vinod Mankara. The book ‘Prism: The Ancestral Abode of Rainbow’ is the first book to be released from ‘Rocket Launchpad’. Read also Mankara has made a science-based documentary “Yanam” in Sanskrit on India’s historic Mars Orbiter Mission “Mangalyaan”. He told that the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) S. Somnath on July 12, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) Director S. Unnikrishnan will release the book by handing it over to Nair. Somnath himself wrote the foreword to this 167-page book, in which he said that it is full of “miracles of science”. Somnath said that there are 50 articles in the book and in them important topics of science have been explained in depth. According to him, the book is an exploration of the aesthetic and poetic aspects of science. The ISRO chief told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, “The book talks about space and space technology and many other such topics in a poetic manner.” What attracted me the most was its presentation and its beautiful language. Somnath said the book would help common people develop a connection with science and feel its beauty deeply. A multiple-time National and State Award winner, Mankara has made six films and 685 documentaries. (agency)