After almost two weeks of her last assignment, the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist, who lent her voice to Chandrayaan 3 and other rocket launch countdowns, N Valarmathi passed away at the age of 64 on Saturday.
According to sources, N Valarmathi suffered cardiac arrest and died in Chennai in the evening.
Meanwhile, former ISRO Director PV Venkitakrishnan condoled the death of the scientist. Taking to ‘X’ platform, he wrote, “The voice of Valarmathi Madam will not be there for the countdown of future missions of ISRO from Sriharikotta. Chandrayaan 3 was her final countdown announcement. An unexpected demise. Feel so sad. Pranams!”
N Valarmathi was born on July 31, 1959 in Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur. She did her schooling from Nirmala Girls Higher Secondary School and graduated in engineering from the Government College of Technology in Coimbatore.
She joined ISRO in 1984 playing a pivotal role in numerous missions including being the project director of RISAT-1, India’s first indigenously developed Radar Imaging Satellite (RIS) and the country’s second such satellite.
She is also the first person to receive the Abdul Kalam Award in 2015. The award was constituted by the Government of Tamil Nadu in honour of the former president APJ Abdul Kalam.
