India's spaceport, on Sriharikota island in Andhra Pradesh. ISRO launches its satellite launchers from here.
ISRO calls the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC SHAR) the spaceport of India. It provides the launch base for the national space programme.
The centre casts solid propellant for rocket boosters, tests solid motors on static test stands, puts rockets together and launches them. It also runs the range: the tracking and telemetry network and the mission control centre.
There are two launch pads for orbital rockets and a separate pad for sounding rockets. The First Launch Pad serves PSLV and SSLV. The Second Launch Pad was built mainly for GSLV and LVM3, and is the backup pad for PSLV.
India's first rocket station, at Thumba, ran short of room and safe range for bigger rockets. So a second station was set up on the east coast, on Sriharikota island north of Pulicat. It was called SHAR, the Sriharikota Range. The public catalogue still notes its old name, Sriharikota Launching Range.
The first successful SLV-3 launch lifted off from here on 18 July 1980. The First Launch Pad came in 1993 and the Second Launch Pad in 2004.
On 29 January 2025, GSLV-F15 carrying NVS-02 became the 100th launch from Sriharikota. Earlier that month, on 16 January 2025, the Union Cabinet approved a Third Launch Pad for ISRO's next-generation rockets, at a cost of Rs 3,984.86 crore, to be built within four years.
PSLV, GSLV, LVM3 and SSLV all launch from Sriharikota. Chandrayaan-1 left from here on 22 October 2008, and Chandrayaan-3 flew from the Second Launch Pad. The public satellite catalogue lists more than 100 Indian satellites launched from this site.
Private rockets use it too. Skyroot's sub-orbital Vikram-S flew from here on 18 November 2022. A launch pad and mission control centre built and run by Agnikul opened inside the campus on 25 November 2022. On 18 July 2026, Skyroot's Vikram-I lifted off from the First Launch Pad: the first orbital launch by a private Indian company from Indian soil.
The SDSC SHAR website has offered online registration for members of the public to watch launches from the site. It also lists internship and facility-visit openings for students.