The third keynote speech at the 50th Anniverary of the Space Age event was made by Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, former Chair of ISRO and a current member of the Indian parliament. His address focused on the potential of space technology to serve humanity during the coming 50 years.

Dr Kasturirangan thanked the pioneers who showed the way during the last 50 years.

Space has made many contributions to modern life: better weather forecasting, worldwide communications, timely responses to emergencies and disasters, Earth Observation data, environmental and climate modeling and understanding the Earth as a system. Many countries now have access to space, whether directly because of national programmes, indirectly as a result of international cooperation or as a user of others' data.

India, Dr Kasturirangan's own country, was a good example where access to space technology improves the life of its citizens. Natural resources are monitored by Earth Observation and communications satellites link remote areas together. Opportunities for tele-medicine and tele-education are transforming lives.

The last 50 years of space have made all this possible. We can expect space to improve the future as well. The Earth faces many challenges - there will be 9.2 billion people by 2050, climate change threatens us, sea levels will rise. Today, 21 March 2007, was "World Water Day" and it was anounced that 1.2 billion people have no access to clean water - demand doubles every 21 years. For this last issue, there is a case for a satellite-bourn "Global Water Watch".

During the next 50 years, the challenge is to understand Earth as a total system and the changes anthropogenic activities bring. We need to continue to provide a legal framework to space and share costs internationally.

Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan is a space scientist who headed the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) until 2003 and is now a member of the Indian parliament. He has been the Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, since April 2004.

He graduated in Science with Honours, and obtained his Master of Science degree in Physics, from Bombay University. He received his Doctorate Degree in Experimental High Energy Astronomy in 1971, working at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.

As an astrophysicist, Dr.Kasturirangan's research interests include high energy X-ray and gamma ray astronomy as well as optical astronomy. He has published more than 220 papers, in international and national journals, in the areas of astronomy, space science and space applications.

Dr Kasturirangan was responsible, until 2003, for directing the Indian space programme for over 9 years, as Chairman of ISRO and the Space Commission and as Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Space. The Indian space programme achieved major milestones under his stewardship, including the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the first successful flight testing of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). His tenure in office also saw the successful design, development and launch of the Remote Sensing satellites, IRS-1C and 1D and the ocean observation satellites IRS-P3/P4.

He was earlier the Director of ISRO Satellite Centre, overseeing the development of new generation spacecraft.