Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has called on the scientific community to remain vigilant against attempts to drag Kerala back to the dark ages marked by superstitions and taboos. Delivering the inaugural lecture at the World Space Week celebrations organised by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) here on Wednesday, he said there were reasons to suspect that certain forces were trying to take the State back to the old ages. He called for a conscious effort to defeat such attempts. Satellite services Kerala, he said, was a beneficiary of the satellite services provided by ISRO in the area of fisheries, land use, forest demarcation, and identification of water sources as well as tele-medicine and natural resource mapping. He added that the Thiruvananthapuram-based VSSC had helped India to become a major player in space research. VSSC director K. Sivan presided. Mayor V.K. Prashant, LPSC Director S. Somanath, and other senior ISRO officials were present. World Space Week is observed from October 4 to 10 to highlight the relevance of space science and technology and their contribution to betterment of human life. The theme of this year’s celebration is Exploring New Worlds in Space. ISRO centres, including Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO Inertial Systems Unit in Thiruvananthapuram, and ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, have organised a variety of programmes during the week. A citizen familiarisation programme, a students’ workshop, open house, and open innovation contest for college students are the highlights of the event this year. Rocket launch The public will also get to view the launch of sounding rockets from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station on October 4, 5 and 6. An expo on Space Applications for the Common Man’ is being organised at the ST Hindu College, Nagercoil, as part of the celebrations.