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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Thumba
| other_name =
| nickname =
| settlement_type =
| image_skyline =
| image_alt =
| image_caption =
| pushpin_map = India Kerala
| pushpin_label_position = right
| pushpin_map_alt =
| pushpin_map_caption = Location in Kerala, India
| coordinates = {{coord|8|31|0|N|76|52|0|E|display=inline,title}}
| subdivision_type = Country
| subdivision_name = {{flag|India}}
| subdivision_type1 = [[States and territories of India|State]]
| subdivision_name1 = [[Kerala]]
| subdivision_type2 = [[List of districts of India|District]]
| subdivision_name2 = [[Thiruvananthapuram district|Thiruvananthapuram]]
| established_title = 
| established_date =
| founder =
| named_for =
| government_type =
| governing_body = [[Trivandrum Corporation]]
| unit_pref = Metric
| area_footnotes =
| area_rank =
| area_total_km2 =
| elevation_footnotes =
| elevation_m =
| population_total =
| population_as_of =
| population_rank =
| population_density_km2 = auto
| population_demonym =
| population_footnotes =
| demographics_type1 = Languages
| demographics1_title1 = Official
| demographics1_info1 = [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]], English
| timezone1 = [[Indian Standard Time|IST]]
| utc_offset1 = +5:30
| postal_code_type = 
| postal_code =
| registration_plate = KL-22
| website =
| footnotes =
}}

'''Thumba''' is an area of [[Thiruvananthapuram]] city, capital of [[Kerala]], India.

==Location and geography==
[[File:തുംബ_പൂവ്.JPG|thumb|right|Flowering [[Leucas_zeylanica|Thumba]]]]
Thumba is a vast village bordering Menamkulam in the east, St. Dominic's Vettucaud in the north, and Kochuthura in the south; towards its west is the Arabian Sea. While the border with Menamkulam is the [[Parvathi Puthannaar]] canal, the border with Kochuthura is the Rajiv Gandhi Nagar road. The entire village is flat at sea level, and the ground near to the coast is made of tan-coloured beach sand. This is in stark contrast to the rest of the village, where the ground is made of white sand, where, till the developments of the late 1990s, large amounts of a medicinal herb with white flowers called ''Thumba'' grew in abundance, hence the name.
TERLS dedicated to the United Nations on 2 February 1968.

==Overview==
{{see also|Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station}}
[[File:TERLS Nike Apache launch.png|thumb|right|First rocket launched from [[Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station]] in 1963]]
Thumba became well-known to the outsiders after the establishment of [[Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station]] (TERLS), which was the first of that kind in India. TERLS was founded in Thumba in 1962 in the district of [[Trivandrum]] on the southern tip of India very close to earth's magnetic [[equator]] to launch sounding rockets.

Dr. [[H.G.S. Murthy]], D Eswar Das, M R Kurup and [[A. P. J. Abdul Kalam]] were amongst the initial team of rocket engineers.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Rocket-science-of-south/articleshow/46294497.cms | title=Rocket science of south | date=19 February 2015 | first=Arun | last=Ram | newspaper=The Times of India | accessdate=4 December 2018 }}</ref>

==Rocket launches==

'''First rocket launch:'''

The first [[sounding rocket]], [[Nike-Apache]], was launched rocket on 21 Nov 1963.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-11-08|title=Transported on a Bicycle, Launched from a Church: The Amazing Story of India's First Rocket Launch|url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/74283/first-rocket-india-thumba-vikram-sarabhai-abdul-kalam/|access-date=2020-09-08|website=The Better India|language=en-US}}</ref> The project director for this Sodium vapor cloud experiment was Prof. P. D. Bhavsar. The [[Rohini Sounding Rocket]] (RSR) program to develop indigenously developed and fabricated sounding rockets launched the first single-stage Rohini (RH-75) rocket (32 kg rocket with 7 kg payload to ~10 km altitude) in 1967, followed by a two-stage Rohini rocket (100 kg payload to over 320 km altitude).<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.rediff.com/news/2003/nov/20spec.htm | title=Forty Years in Space | date=20 November 2003 | publisher=Rediff | accessdate=4 December 2018 }}</ref>

'''Other launches:'''

Apart from Indian payload, sounding rockets from many other countries (including United States, Russia, Japan, France, Germany) were also launched from Thumba, as part of mutual international collaboration. TERLS developed infrastructure for all aspects of rocketry, ranging from rocket design, rocket propellant, rocket motor casting, integration, payload-assembly, testing, evaluation besides building subsystems like payload housing and jettisonable nose cone. [[Fibre-reinforced plastic]] composite materials for nose cone were used in early programs at TERLS.

The rocket launch from TERLS came to a stand-still in 2000. Later in 2002, the rocket launchings were resumed from TERLS.<ref>{{cite news|title=ISRO: Sounding rocket launchings resume from 'TERLS', Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram|url=http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=9131|newspaper=spaceREF portal|date=27 August 2002}}</ref> [[ISRO]] announced their plans to launch 180 number of RH-200 rockets from TERLS over the next five years.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.astronautix.com/sites/thumba.htm Thumba]
* [http://www.india9.com/i9show/Thumba-48162.htm Thumba from india9.com]
* [http://www.zonkerala.com/tourism/Thumba-27.html Thumba from zonekerala.com]
* [https://archive.today/20130104171839/http://asia.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=9131 Thumba from SpaceRef Asia]

{{Spaceport}}
{{Indian space programme}}

[[Category:Suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram]]

Thumba - Revision history

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