An hour's drive from IT city Bangalore lies Byalalu, a non descript hamlet with a handful of residents and virtually no amenities. But it is this saucer-shaped village, spread over 123 acres across the Bangalore-Mysore highway, which will launch India on its journey to the Moon. On November 18, 2007, a 32-metre dish antenna, a joint venture of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited, was installed in the village, which already had a German-made 18-metre antenna installed a year ago.
The Indian Space Research Organisations ambitious plan to send the spacecraft Chandrayaan-I to the moon has gathered speed with the installation of a huge dish antenna at Byalalu village, 40 km from Bangalore. The dish is 32 metres in diameter and weighs 60 tonnes.