The Sarabhai family was an important and rich Jain business family.
His father Ambalal Sarabhai was an affluent industrialist and owned many textiles mills in Gujarat. Vikram Sarabhai was one of the eight children of Ambalal and Sarla Devi.
Sarabhai matriculated from the Gujarat College in Ahmedabad after passing the Intermediate Science examination.
After that, he moved to England and joined the St. John's College, University of Cambridge. He received the Tripos in Natural Sciences from Cambridge in 1940.
In September, 1942, Vikram Sarabhai married Mrinalini Sarabhai, a celebrated classical dancer. The wedding was held in Chennai without anyone from Vikram's side of the family attending the wedding ceremony because of the ongoing Quit India movement led by Mahatma Gandhi.
Sarabhai returned to an independent India in 1947. Looking at the needs of the country, he persuaded charitable trusts controlled by his family and friends to endow a research institution near his home in Ahmedabad.
This led to the creation of the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) in Ahmedabad on November 11, 1947.
Sarabhai died on 30 December 1971 at Halcyon Castle, Kovalam, Kerala.
He was visiting Thiruvananthapuram to attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Thumba railway station being built to service the newly created Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station.
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