Chennai: The voice of the Indian rocket port that announced the launch countdown to the world went silent permanently September 2.
Space scientist Valarmathi working in the Programme Office of the Range Operations at Sriharikota Range (SHAR), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was the person who did the countdown for the past six years for India’s rocket launches.
Valarmathi would start the countdown for Indian rockets when they were about one minute to blast off.
It was her gradual countdown that would ignite the thrill in all those who assembled at the terrace of the media centre at the Sriharikota rocket port.
Ironically it was Valarmathi who did the countdown for India’s landmark mission Chandrayaan-3 that resulted in lander Vikram settling down on the lunar soil and later Pragyan rover rolling down the lander and moving around doing the experiments assigned to it.
On September 2, the ISRO put Pragyan to sleep and it was also on that day Valarmathi passed away at a hospital here.
“She had gone on leave and later got hospitalised. Initially she showed improvement but later the condition worsened,” an ISRO official told IANS.
It is really sad that God had his own countdown for Valarmathi.
But what is true is that journalists will be surely missing the majestic voice they used to hear counting 10, 9, 8, 7……0, plus five seconds for sometime to come.