India has been running an outstanding space programme on a worldwide scale for more than 30 years, including the development of various remote sensing satellites. With more than 6,000 members, ISRS is one of the globally largest national remote sensing societies. An Honorary Fellowship is very rarely awarded by ISRS, especially to foreigners; currently there are only 5 non-Indian Honorary Fellows, including Christian Heipke and his predecessor at IPI, Prof Gottfried Konecny.