The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO /ˈɪsroʊ/) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister of India, with the Chairman of ISRO also serving as the chief executive of the DoS. It is primarily responsible for space-based operations, space exploration, international space cooperation and the development of related technologies. The agency maintains a constellation of imaging, communications and remote sensing satellites. It operates the GAGAN and IRNSS satellite navigation systems. It has sent three missions to the Moon and one mission to Mars.
Formerly, ISRO was known as the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), which was set up in 1962 by then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the recommendation of scientist Vikram Sarabhai. It was renamed as ISRO in 1969 and was subsumed into the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). The establishment of ISRO institutionalised space research activities in India. In 1972, the Government set up a space commission and the DoS bringing ISRO under its purview. It has since then been managed by the DoS, which also governs various other institutions in the domain of astronomy and space technology.
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