Rediff On The NeT: The Kasturirangan magic

The Kasturirangan magic

"The Kasturirangan magic" has brought success once again -- the seventh in a row.

For Dr Krishnasamy Kastrurirangan, success has followed success since he took over as Indian Space Research Organisation chairman on March 31, 1994.

Monday's successful launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C1, India's first operational flight which injected into orbit IRS-1D, is another feather in the ISRO chief's cap.

After Dr Kasturirangan took over, there have been four successful launches including from Sriharikota and three from abroad.

The ISRO chief tasted his first success soon after he took over when the advanced Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle put an 114-kg satellite in orbit in May 1994.

Five months later, the second developmental mission, PSLV-D2, was launched. It was a complete success placing the IRS-P2 in a polar sun-synchronous orbit on October 15, 1994. This success was reinforced when the third developmental test flight, PSLV-D3, placed a 922-kg IRS-P3 in orbit on March 21 last year.

The three successful launches from abroad during Dr Kasturirangan's tenure were: Insat-2C and Insat-2D in December 1995 and June this year respectively from Kourou in French Guyana and IRS-1D in December 1995 from Baikanour in Russia.

Since 1971, he has been associated with the country's space programme. he ISRO chief, who is also the Space Commission chairman, has rich and varied experience as researcher, designer and project director of the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. He has held several important positions in the satellite programmes starting from the first Indian satellite, Aryabhatta.

Dr Kasturirangan had also served as director of the two experimental earth observation satellites, Bhaskara 1 and 2. As the director of ISAC from 1990, he oversaw the development of the indigenous second-generation communication satellites, Insat-2A and Insat-2B.

UNI

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