ISRO scientist, the voice behind Chandrayaan-3 mission launch dies at 64

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist, Valarmathi, who lent her voice to the national space agency’s rocket countdown launches, passed away due to a heart attack in Chennai.

The scientist made her last countdown during the historic launch of Chandrayaan-3, which took place at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 14 July.

Dr PV Venkitakrishnan, a former director at ISRO condoled her demise on X (formerly Twitter) and said that Chadrayaan-3 was her 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!” Dr Venkitakrishnan wrote on X.

After the historic success of India’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) geared up for another big launch.

Aditya-L1, the Indian space agency’s maiden space mission to study the Sun, lifted off on Saturday at 11.50 am from the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.

The Aditya-L1 is an ‘observatory’ or spacecraft that will monitor the Sun 24×7. This will be the first time that India will put a spacecraft on a Lagrange point – a position in space where, as per NASA, “the gravitational forces of a two-body system like the Sun and Earth produce enhanced regions of attraction and repulsion”.

There are five Lagrange points in the Sun-Earth system; India’s solar mission will be placed in a halo orbit around Lagrange point 1, or L1, which is about 1.5 million km from the Earth, according to ISRO.

L1, Aditya’s parking spot, has been housing Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a project by America’s NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) since 1996, reported Space.com.

The Aditya-L1 mission will carry seven payloads, out of which four will directly observe the Sun. These seven payloads or scientific instruments include Visible Emission Line Coronagraph(VELC), Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT), Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS), High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS), Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX), Plasma Analyser Package For Aditya (PAPA) and Advanced Tri-axial High Resolution Digital Magnetometers.