N Valarmathi, an Isro scientist who provided the voice for Chandrayaan-3 and other rocket launch countdowns, has died at the age of 64.
ISRO scientist N Valarmathi, the voice behind the Indian Space and Research Organization’s rocket countdown launches including Chandrayaan-3, which turned out to be her final one, died on Saturday evening due to a heart attack in Chennai.
Dr PV Venkitakrishnan, a former ISRO director, expressed his condolences on X (previously Twitter) and stated that Chadrayaan-3 was her final countdown notification.
“The voice of Valarmathi Madam will not be there for the countdowns of future missions of ISRO from Sriharikotta. Chandrayan 3 was her final countdown announcement. An unexpected demise. Feel so sad. Pranams!” Dr Venkitakrishnan wrote on X.
Many people paid tribute to the late ISRO scientist on social media.
“I’m very sorry to hear this. “We worked closely with her on our Vikram-S launch last year, for which she was the voice of the launch countdown,” a user on X commented.
One more person commented, “Jai hind….she will be remembered as her countdown….finally ended and gave us shivshakti point at the moon.”
“I noticed she wasn’t there when the AdityaL1 was launched. She was presumably out of the office or doing something else. I didn’t anticipate such horrible news, though. I’ll really miss her.Om Shanti,” the third user wrote.
In August, Chandrayaan-3, an Indian spacecraft, became the first nation to set foot on the south pole of the moon. It is also the fourth nation, behind the US, China, and Russia, to have accomplished a successful lunar landing.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission consists of three modules: the propulsion module, which moved the lander and the rover module into a 100-kilometer lunar orbit; the lander module, which carried out the lunar craft’s soft landing; and the rover module, which is used to explore the moon’s surface.
Who was N Valarmathi?
Valarmathi, who was born on July 31, 1959, joined ISRO in 1984 and took part in a number of missions. She oversaw the construction of RISAT-1, the nation’s second radar imaging satellite (RIS), which was constructed entirely within India.
In April 2012, RISAT-1 was successfully launched.
APJ Abdul Kalam, often known as the “Missile Man of India,” was a former president of India. On Independence Day in 2015, Valarmathi became the first recipient of the renowned Abdul Kalam Award, which was established by the Government of Tamil Nadu in his honor.
