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

Indian minister describes N Valarmathi as the voice behind many ISRO launch countdowns

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Published: Mon 4 Sep 2023, 6:53 PM

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!''

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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.

She celebrated her 64th birthday on July 31. Her last mission with ISRO was the pre-launch countdown of the PSLV-C56 rocket that lifted off carrying 7 Singaporean satellites, reported Indian media.

India's ambitious lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, which means Mooncraft in Sanskrit, made a successful landing on the moon's south pole on August 23. With this, India became the fourth country after the United States, Russia and China to conduct a soft landing on the moon.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14, on board the LVM-3 rocket. The spacecraft was placed in lunar orbit on August 5 after which it conducted a series of orbital manoeuvres as it lowered closer to the moon’s surface.

Meanwhile, ISRO also launched India’s first sun mission — Aditya-L1 — last week.

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