ISRO Scientist
Who is Nambi Narayanan?
Nambi Narayanan is a former member of ISRO. Nambi framed with a false spying case against ISRO. And finally, he did prove innocent by the Government of India. Then Nambi awarded Padma Bhushan award in 2019.
Nambi Narayanan childhood:
Nambi Narayanan was born on December 12, 1947, in a place called Nagercoil which is in Kanyakumari of Tamilnadu in India. He was born in a Hindu family. Nambi lost his father while pursuing his degree in Madurai. He had two sisters. As soon as his father died his mother felt sick. Nambi married Meena Nambi. The couple had a son who is a businessman and a daughter Geetha Arunan who is a Montessori school teacher in Bangalore.
Nambi Narayanan education:
Nambi did his schooling in DVD Higher Secondary School. Later he did his first degree in Thiagarajar College of Engineering in Madurai. Next his second degree from Princeton University in New Jersey. His hobbies were reading and traveling.
Nambi Narayanan into ISRO:
Initially in 1966, Nambi worked at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station in Thumba, Thiruvananthapuram. He met Vikram Sarabai the chairman of ISRO there. At that time, he worked as the payload integrator. Then on September 12 – 1966, Narayanan, along with the 20-member team, started working at Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram. By 1969, Narayanan earned a NASA fellowship. With that he entered Princeton University. And he got job offer in US. He denied the offer and returned to India with liquid propulsion theory. At that time India solely depends on the solid propellants alone. So by the early 1970s, Nambi Narayanan introduced liquid fuel rocket technology in India.
Achievements in ISRO:
Nambi was the one who built the 600 kg of liquid propellant motors for rockets which is about 1,300 lb in the middle of the 1970s. After that success, Nambi Narayanan moves on to build bigger engines. In 2008, his team builds the Vikas engine. This engine used in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that took Chandrayaan-1 to the moon in 2008. The same engine then used in the second stage of PSLV and as the second and the four strap-on stages of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
Early Career Details in ISRO:
In 1966, Nambi joined ISRO. After joining ISRO in the early 1970s, he predicted the need for liquid filled engines. He designed the first thrust liquid propellant motors which are around 600kg. Then he introduced the liquid fuel rocket technology. At that time APJ Abdul Kalam and his team members worked on solid motors. After that Narayanan greatly was greatly supported by ISRO chairman U.R. Rao and Satish Dawan. Then he was in charge of the cryogenics division; it is responsible for producing materials at low temperatures.
Nambi Narayanan awards and achievements:
On Jan 26th, 2019, the Government of India offered him the Padma Bhushan award. Nambi Narayanan served in ISRO for more than 35 years. He worked with a scientist named Satish Dhawan, Vikram Sarabhai and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. R.Madhavan got signed to play the role of Nambi in the upcoming film called Nambi’s autobiography. Former ISRO chairman Madhavan praised Nambi by telling; Nambi played a very critical role in the development of PSLV, GSLV and is one of the pioneers in the Liquid Propulsion System (LPS). Also A.S Kiran Kumar, ISRO Chairman from 2015 – 2018 told about him that he is one of the pioneers in cryogenic engine technology in India.
Nambi Narayanan and a false accusation:
Nambi Narayanan hit the headlines in 1994 and caught on the espionage case. He was, pertained to allegations of transfer of certain confidential documents on India’s space program to foreign countries like Pakistan by two scientists and four others, including two Maldivian women. The four were Nambi Narayanan, D. Sasikumaran, Mariam Rasheeda and Fauzia Hassan. He was suspected for leaking the vital defense secrets to those Maldivian intelligence officers.
Nambi got arrested and made to spend 48 days in jail. The case also has some political links where as it is congress targeted with the involvement of then Chief Minister of Tamilnadu late M Karunanidhi. He also told the media that (Intelligence Bureau) IB interrogated in a bad manner and pressured him to accept the false accusation. In the name of interrogation Nambi Narayanan had undergone a lot of tortures. In 1996 the CBI dismissed the charges and followed by the Supreme Court dismissal of the charges in April 1998.
Nambi Narayanan proven innocence:
On 1999, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) opposed the government of Kerala for having damaged Narayanan’s distinguished career in space research along with the physical and mental torture to which he and his family got subjected. So when the charges get dismissed the two scientists got moved out of Thiruvananthapuram and offered with a desk job. Then in 2001, NHRC ordered the Government of Kerala to pay an amount of 1 crore to Nambi Narayanan. But in 2012 after a long period Government of Kerala paid him an amount of 10 lakhs.
Followed by this on 7 November 2013, Narayanan made a media announcement. He wants to uncover the secret and wants to expose all those involved in this conspiracy. He added that uncovering these secrets may discourage the youth of India. After that on 14 September 2018, the Supreme Court appointed a three-member panel headed by its former judge. This was to find about the ‘ISRO spy scandal’, the ruthless arrest and the alleged torture of former space scientist Nambi Narayanan. This committee of three-judge Bench led by Dipak Misra. They awarded Nambi Narayanan the amount of 50 lakh as a compensation for all those mental tortures he has undergone in these days.