 Hello, I am Ashok Joshi and it is my pleasure to welcome you to an important fundamental course on Introduction to Launch Vehicle Analysis and Design. In this introductory video, I would like to present the overall philosophy of the course along with its broad objectives. Space has always been of keen interest to mankind as it is believed to contain information relevant to formation, existence and continued sustenance of our planet. However, as terrestrial instruments have a limited reach, concept of objects in space for such tasks has evolved. Further, many earth-related activities, for example, communication, etc., also can be better performed with instruments positioned at higher altitudes. In view of these, launch vehicles have emerged as important tools that enable the access to the space through positioning of objects in space. If we look at the early history of launch vehicles, Chinese are acknowledged pioneers of space technology through development of fireworks. However, it is only at the start of 1900 that the study of space as a formal discipline began with development of rockets that overcame earth's gravity. However, if we look at launch vehicles as a scientific discipline, the most significant has been the decade 1948 to 1958 where most developments took place in the context of rocket technology in the form of evolution of German V2 rockets and United States sounding rockets. As all of you would be aware, India entered the space age in 1967 with participation in the sounding rocket program and establishment of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, which was then called TURLS or Tumba Equatorial Rocket Launch Station. Currently, many countries are into developing launch vehicles for many different types of applications and that probably is the reason why such a course is important and useful. Let us see what we would be doing as part of this course. So, we broadly aim to provide understanding of the fundamental principles governing the ascent mission trajectory and launch vehicle configurations. In addition, as part of the course, we also aim to look at the basic methodologies for their synthesis. Main learning objective is to enable students to create launch vehicle configurations and their trajectories through simplified techniques based on missions. Thus, we see that launch vehicle technology has come a long way since its inception and plays a very crucial role in the success or otherwise of any space mission. Let us begin our journey into the exciting world of launch vehicles and learn the principles that govern their operation and also get ideas regarding their synthesis. I hope you are as excited as I am about the subject and will find the course stimulating and challenging. Bye and see you in the course.