Five notable Indians in space

Five notable Indians in space

On March 10, Google celebrated the 89th birthday of Udupi Ramachandra Rao, renowned scientist, remembered by many as India’s satellite man’, with a doodle. He gained the name for being the man behind the launch of India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, in 1975.

Professor Rao, who died in 2017, was an Indian space scientist and chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Born in Karnataka in 1932, he began his career as a cosmic-ray physicist. After completing his doctorate, he moved to the US where he worked as a faculty member at MIT and Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. He returned to India in 1966 as Professor at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad.

He initiated an extensive high energy astronomy program at the Physical Research Laboratory before spearheading the country’s satellite program in 1972.

In the wake of the occasion, Metrolife takes a look at a few other Indians who have made their mark in space.

Rakesh Sharma

He made history by becoming the first and only Indian citizen to travel to space. Former IAF pilot, Sharma was selected in September 1982 to travel into space as part of a joint programme by ISRO and the Soviet Intercosmos space programme. He flew aboard the Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984.

Kalpana Chawla

Born in Punjab, Kalpana Chawla went on to obtain a degree in aeronautical engineering from Punjab Engineering College. She emigrated to the United States and became a naturalised citizen in the 1980′s. While working for the NASA Ames Centre, she was selected as an Astronaut candidate in 1994 and went for her first mission in 1997 on Colombia STS-87, becoming the first Indian woman to go to space. Sadly, her second mission on-board Columbia STS 107 ended up being her last, when the space shuttle depressurised and broke while returning into the atmosphere, killing everyone on board.

Ravish Malhotra

Born in 1943 in Lahore, British India, Malhotra is a retired Air Commodore of the Indian Air Force. In 1982, he was chosen to train for spaceflight in the Soviet Union’s Intercosmos program. He served as backup for Rakesh Sharma on the Soyuz T-11 mission, but never went to space himself. Malhotra was awarded the Kirti Chakra and Soviet order of Friendship of Peoples in 1984.

Sunita Williams

Sunita Williams became a household name in India for being the second Indian-American Female Astronaut at NASA. She formerly held the record for most spacewalks by a woman (seven) and most spacewalk time for a woman (50 hours, 40 minutes): two achievements that helped her gain international attention.

Dr Swati Mohan

As Perseverance, the NASA rover, landed on the Martian surface Friday, millions of miles away in the US space agency’s control room, a woman’s voice rang out: “Touchdown confirmed!” The announcement, from Indian-American scientist Dr Swati Mohan, skyrocketed her to fame. In her role as the flight controller, she led the guidance, navigation, and control operations of NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. Born in Bengaluru, she emigrated from India to the US when she was only a year old and found interest in space thanks to Star Trek.