Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman Dr K Sivan awarded the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Award by the Tamil Nadu government for his stellar work in the promotion of science and technology. Dr K Sivan’s leadership steered the “historical achievement of most successful GSLV flight with the indigenous cryogenic stage.”
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Kailasavadivoo Sivan, who was the backbone behind ISRO’s successful launch of Chandrayaan-2 mission recently, could not receive the award in person but will receive it from CM K Palaniswami later, the government added.
The Kalam award is to honour those who work for boosting scientific growth, humanities and students’ welfare and the awardees should hail from Tamil Nadu.
The award carries 8 gm gold medal, Rs. 5 lakh and a citation.
The citation also hailed Dr K Sivan as “Rocket Man”. It should be noted that Sivan took over as Isro chief from A S Kirankumar in 2018 and then oversaw the launch of India’s biggest moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, in July.
The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is set to land on the far side of the moon (south pole) by August 20. It had performed its first Earth-raising Orbit manoeuvre on 24 July and the second one came on 26 July while the third on 29 July and the fourth manoeuvre was done successfully on August 2.
With this significant space mission, India aims to soft-land a probe on the Moon’s surface and put a satellite in its orbit.
Ever since the launch of Chandrayaan-2, international media from US, Russia, China and even Pakistan journalists appreciated Indian scientists’ work.