On March 27, Mission Shakti was successfully completed in which The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) launched a solid-fuel missile from its test range in Odisha to intercept an Indian satellite in low-Earth orbit. In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that such a weapon was necessary if India had to safeguard its strategic assets in space.

Very soon a set of images started floating on social media to highlight the poor state of ISRO in its initial days. 

Gaurav Pradhan tweeted "Do u know, When ISRO was carrying rocket parts on a bicycle, Congressi Dadi ji was celebrating @RahulGandhi birthday on a chartered flight Still, Aryabhata @priyankac19 giving credit to world most corrupt family, The Great thugs of 10 Janpath & the Playboy Chacha #MissionShakti".

He had included two images juxtaposed with each other in his tweet. In the first image, two men can be seen carrying a part of the satellite on a bicycle. In the second image, Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi can be seen celebrating Rahul Gandhi's birthday with him on a chartered flight.

A Facebook page PMO India: Report card shared another image in which a rocket is being carried on a Bullock cart.

We will try to find out the context behind each of these images being shared on social media.

Pic 1: Men carrying rocket on a Bicycle

We did a reverse image search on Google and found the same image on Live Mint with a caption "Indian space scientists carrying part of a rocket cone to the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Thiruvananthapuram, 1966".

The image was also tweeted by History TV with a caption "The first rocket in India was transported on a cycle".

TheBetterIndia.com has also published the above image in its article "Transported on a Bicycle, Launched from a Church: The Amazing Story of India’s First Rocket Launch" which suggests that the above image was captured during the first satellite launch by India on November 21, 1963, from Thumba on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram.

Some of the notable points from the article of thebetterindia.com which has given the reference of the book by Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Ignited Minds: Unleashing The Power Within India, 

1. A church was used as a workshop, and cattle sheds served as storage houses and laboratories. 

2. Thumba had no canteen or facilities of any sort, so the scientists would cycle every day to the railway station at Trivandrum for their breakfast and dinner

3. In those days, the only jeep was always busy, so the scientists had to either walk or use a cycle to move within the range. 

4. Even rocket parts and payloads were transported by bullock carts and bicycle to the launch pad probably because other vehicles were not available to them.

Note: The image was taken at Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS) which later became Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). ISRO started in 1969 (1962 as Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR)).

It was INCOSPAR which took the decision to set up Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) at Thumba.

All the above points clearly highlight that Indian scientists didn't have enough resources and support from the government in its initial days.

Pic 2: Indira Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi celebrating Rahul Gandhi's birthday on a chartered flight

The picture of the birthday celebration in the flight is indeed a photo of Rahul Gandhi’s birthday being celebrated inside a flight by Indira Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi. A report by Times Now, suggests that the photo is from the year 1977.

Also, Rahul Gandhi was born in 1970 and Priyanka Gandhi in 1972 which means that picture must have been clicked a few years after 1972.

Pic 3: A rocket is being carried on a Bullock cart

We did a Google reverse image search and found the same image on ISRO's official website which shows that the picture was taken during the launch of APPLE, Indian First Communication Satellite in 1981.

The object on the Bullock Cart is APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment) satellite. A report by Hindustan Times suggests that it was being carried on a bullock cart because space scientists of India were trying to find a transportable platform which was metal-free, and not because of lack of resources or funds.

This is corroborated by an article written by Padma Shri Dr RM Vasagam, former senior scientist at ISRO, who was also Project Director of APPLE. According to the article, the APPLE was put on the bullock cart "to provide a non-magnetic environment and to conduct the antenna test in an open field." He has also written that this solution was found in about five hours and at a minimal cost of Rs 150.

Conclusion: The timeline of all three images are different. Hence it would be wrong to say that Gandhi family was celebrating a birthday in the flight while scientists were carrying rocket parts on the bicycle and bullock cart. However, it is true that during the first rocket launch by India in 1963 from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station (TERLS), only one Jeep was available due to which rocket parts and payloads were transported by bullock carts and bicycle to the launch pad.