IIST is Asia’s first Space Institute and the first in the world to offer the complete range of undergraduate, post graduate, doctoral programmes with specific focus to space science, technology and applications.  view VIDEO on IIST !

This unique concept took root in January 2007, when IIST was registered as a Society under the Travancore -Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act, 1955. IIST received the approval of  the Union Cabinet on 26 April, 2007 and it was formally inaugurated on 14 September 2007 by Dr. G. Madhavan Nair. In a little less than a year of its establishment, IIST received the recognition of UGC as a ‘Deemed to be University’ under Section 3 of UGC Act, 1956.

The Institute has the unique mandate of encouraging and equipping brilliant youngsters from all parts of the country to take up a career as Scientist/Engineer in the Indian Space Research Organisation. IIST functions as a autonomous body under the Department of Space, Government of India.