Kalam’s first rocket made on church land

New Delhi – Indian President A P J Abdul Kalam, considered the father of India's missile programme, made his first rocket on a piece of land handed over by a church in Kerala for the project.

The President revealed this when asked by a chemical engineering student of National University of Singapore at an interactive session recently.

Kalam narrated how he, under the leadership of his mentor and leading space scientist Vikram Sarabhai, had in early 1960s, managed to persuade the Bishop of a church in Kerala and the fisher folk of a village there to hand over their land for a scientific research project for the benefit of the country.

The President detailed how Bishop Peter Perreira called him and Sarabhai to the church on a Sunday for prayer and religious sermon to raise the issue of handing over of the land for the project,

That was the plot, Kalam said, on which he had made the first rocket of his life.

The incident also went to affirm that religion and science can come to each other's help, he said.