U. R. Rao

Udupi Ramachandra Rao was an Indian space scientist known as the Satellite Man of India for his role building the country's satellite technology program, having completed his doctorate under Vikram Sarabhai and worked at MIT before returning to India in 1966. He led the team that built and launched Aryabhata, India's first satellite, in 1975, and over the following decades oversaw the development and launch of more than a dozen further Indian satellites, including the Bhaskara and Rohini series, the Ariane Passenger Payload Experiment, and the early Indian National Satellite and Indian Remote Sensing series that established India's operational communications and Earth-observation capability. As Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation from 1984 to 1994, he accelerated development of India's own launch vehicle capability, overseeing the first successful flight of the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle in 1992 and initiating the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle program that flew successfully in 1995, as well as early work on the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle and Indian cryogenic engine technology. He received India's Padma Bhushan award in 1976 and Padma Vibhushan in 2017, and was the first Indian scientist inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame in 2013 and the International Astronautical Federation Hall of Fame in 2016.