Bengaluru: Google celebrated the 89th Birthday of Professor Udupi Ramachandra Rao, with a doodle on its house web page that includes an animated picture of the famend Indian space scientist with a background of the Earth and taking pictures stars.
“Happy Birthday, Prof. Rao! Your stellar technological advancements continue to be felt across the galaxy,” reads the outline on Google Doodle’s web site.
Born in a distant village of Karnataka on this present day in 1932, Rao started his profession as a cosmic-ray physicist and protege of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, a scientist extensively considered the daddy of India’s space programme, it mentioned.
After finishing his doctorate, Professor Rao introduced his skills to the US, the place he labored as a professor and carried out experiments on NASA’s ‘Pioneer’ and ‘Explorer’ space probes.
On his return to India in 1966, he initiated an intensive excessive vitality astronomy programme at thePhysical Research Laboratory, India’s premier establishment for space sciences, earlier than spearheading his nation’s satellite tv for pc programme in 1972.
Motivated by the sensible purposes of aerospace expertise to resolve societal issues resembling poverty and meals shortages, Prof Rao supervised the 1975 launch of India’s first satellite tv for pc Aryabhataone of over 20 satellites he developed that remodeled a lot of rural India by advancing communication and meteorological providers, it mentioned.
From 1984 to 1994, Professor Rao continued to propel his nation’s space programme to stratospheric heights as Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. Here, he developed rocket expertise such because the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which has launched over 250 satellites.
Prof Rao turned the primary Indian inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame in 2013, the identical 12 months that PSLV launched India’s first interplanetary mission Mangalyaana satellite tv for pc that orbits Mars right now.
He handed away on July 24, 2017, in Bengaluru.
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