The children staying in the little island in the Bay of Bengal along the Andhra Pradesh coast, Sriharikota have grown up watching rockets take off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre since their childhood. These children mostly belong to the fishermen families who populate this spindle-shaped island. They have grown up living near the nation’s only spaceport and have always dreamt of exploring the space as space scientists and astronauts. But in order to materialise this dream, they have to work hard, very hard. And in reality they do work hard, they travel up to two hours every morning in order to reach school. In some cases, a few children have to travel hours on a boat as there are no schools near their homes. The students have expressed that living near this spaceport have inculcated big dreams into their heads and have inspired them to acquire decent education in order to achieve their dreams. These 6,000 people living near the space port have learnt a lot from these rockets taking off, it has made them more determined to prepare for a completely different journey.
