ISRO Chairman K Sivan was on Thursday honoured with the Tamil Nadu government's Dr. A P JAbdul Kalam Award by Chief Minister K Palaniswami. The award was earlier announced in recognition of Sivan's stellar work in the promotion of science and technology. Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation, was originally scheduled to receive the award here during the Independence Day celebrations on August 15, but could not do so.

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ISRO chairman K Sivan honoured

The government had earlier said Sivan would receive the award from Palaniswami on a later date. Accordingly, the ISRO chief met Palaniswami at the secretariat here, where the chief minister presented him with the award, which carries an eight-gram gold medal, Rs five lakh in cash and a citation. The Kalam award is to honour those who work for promoting scientific growth, humanities and students' welfare and the awardees should hail from Tamil Nadu. Under Sivan's tutelage, ISRO had successfully launchedChandrayaan 2, the second mission to the moon on July 22 and he was the chief architect of SITARA, a 6D trajectory simulation software, according to the citation, which also hailed him as "Rocket Man".

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K Sivan's journey 

The 62-year-old Sivan was the first graduate in his family who got a Bachelor's degree in engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology in 1980. Completing his Master's degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, he later joined ISRO and was a recipient of several awards including the Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (1999). Following the death of former President A P J AbdulKalam in 2015, late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had then announced an award in his name

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Chandrayaan 2- next stop

The achievement that the country is now eyeing with Chandrayaan 2 is to soft-land on the Moon's south pole. The ISRO said that Lander Vikram will soft-land on Moon on September 7, 2019. As the Chandrayaan 2 landing date nears, the country is looking forward to registering itself in the elite group of countries. The ISRO also explained why it has chosen the South Pole for its landing. Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon’s surface. Subsequently, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enters into a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon. Then, it will perform a series of complex braking maneuvers to soft-land in the South polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019. The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru.

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