Indian scientist, the voice behind Chandrayaan-3 countdown, dies of cardiac arrest

Indian scientist N Valarmathi, the voice behind the rocket launch countdown during the country's ambitious Chandrayaan-3 mission, died on September 2 due to a cardiac arrest.

She had been working at the Indian Space Research Organisation since 1984. Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14, on board the LVM-3 rocket.

Confirming the news on X (formerly Twitter), former ISRO director PV Venkitakrishnan wrote that the “voice of Valarmathi Madam will not be there for the countdowns of future missions of ISRO from Sriharikotta. Feel so sad. Pranams!''

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Entrepreneurship in India, also paid his tribute on social media. Along with a picture of Valarmathi, he wrote, “Saddened to hear about the passing of N Valarmathi ji, the voice behind many ISRO launch countdowns, including Chandrayaan 3. My condolences to her family and friends. Om Shanti.”

People paid their condolences in the comments section.

A user wrote, “Very, very sad to hear this. We worked closely with her for our Vikram-S launch last year, for which she was the voice for the launch countdown.”

Another added, “Very sad to hear this. Condolences to the family.”

Valarmathi did her schooling from Nirmala Girls Higher Secondary School in the southern Tamil Nadu state. She then went on to pursue engineering from the Government College of Technology in Coimbatore.

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