The Satish Dhawan Space Centre is the rocket launch centre for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota, in SPSR Nellore district, 80 km north of Chennai in South India. It was originally called Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR), and was for sometime known as Sriharikota Launching Range. The centre was renamed as Satish Dhawan Space Centre in 2002 after the death of ISRO’s former chairman Satish Dhawan. But, it is still popularly known as SHAR.

The centre became operational in 1971 when an RH-125 sounding rocket was launched. The SHAR facility now consists of two launch pads. India’s lunar orbiter Chandrayaan 1 was launched from this centre on 22 October 2008. SHAR will also be the main base for the Indian human spaceflight program by 2015.