G. Madhavan Nair

Renowned rocket technologist G. Madhavan Nair was chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from 2003 to 2009. His tenure witnessed India’s Chandrayaan-1 mission as well as the seeds of manned missions and the initiation of space-based services like disaster warning, tele-education and tele-medicine. Joining ISRO under Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in 1967, he worked his way up to become the director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). He became the first non-American president of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and was the general president of the 97th Indian Science Congress. He has been bestowed with several awards, including the National Aeronautical Award, the Padma Bhushan (1998) and the Padma Vibhushan (2009). About The Translator Jaya G. Nair is a post-graduate in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, and served ISRO for nearly three decades in technical and techno-managerial roles at the ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU) and the VSSC. After voluntary retirement from ISRO, she is currently pursuing interests in social sciences and literature and writes in both English and Malayalam. She has collaborated with Madhavan Nair on this book as translator and editor.