Who Was N Valarmathi? The Voice Behind Many ISRO Launch Countdowns Passes Away
Dr P V Venkitakrishnan, a former director at ISRO in a post said that Chandrayan 3 was Valarmathi's final countdown announcement.
ISRO scientist N Valarmathi, the voice behind many Indian Space Research Organisation's launch countdowns has passed away.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday condoled her demise in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Dr P V Venkitakrishnan, a former director at ISRO in a X post said that Chandrayan 3 was Valarmathi's final countdown announcement.
"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!" he wrote.
News agency ANI quoting ISRO PRO reported that Valarmathi passed away at a private hospital in Chennai due to cardiac arrest.
"She was a part of the Range Operations Programme Office at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre where she used to announce the countdown on all launches," ISRO PRO said.
Who Was ISRO Scientist N Valarmathi?
According to a report in NDTV, Valarmathi was a native of Tamil Nadu's Ariyalur. She was born on July 31, 1959.
She went to the Nirmala Girls Higher Secondary School before graduating in engineering from the Government College of Technology in Coimbatore.
The report said that Valarmathi joined ISRO in 1984 and played a pivotal role in numerous missions.
She was the project director of RISAT-1, India's first indigenously developed Radar Imaging Satellite (RIS) and the country's second such satellite.
In 2015, she also became the first person to receive the Abdul Kalam Award, instituted by the Government of Tamil Nadu in honour of the former president Abdul Kalam in 2015.
Condolences have started pouring in on X to pay tribute to the late ISRO scientist. Take a look:
