A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was a prominent Indian scientist who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Renowned for his pivotal role in the nation’s civilian space programme and military missile development, he was known as the Missile Man of India. He made significant contributions to India’s Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998 which established him as a national hero.
An alumnus of the prestigious Madras Institute of Technology, Kalam began his career as a scientist at the Aeronautical Development Establishment of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). He was later transferred to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) where he served as the project director of India’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III).
He eventually rejoined DRDO and became closely involved in India’s space programme. he served as the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister in the 1990s before becoming the President of India in 2002. Immensely popular during his term, he earned the moniker of People’s President. He was honored with several awards including the Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour, for his contribution to the nation’s space and nuclear programme.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam earned his degree from Madras Institute of Technology in 1957 and joined the Aeronautical Development Establishment of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as a scientist in 1958. In the early 1960s, he worked with the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) under the renowned space scientist Vikram Sarabhai. He also designed a small hovercraft at DRDO. He visited NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; and Wallops Flight Facility in 1963-64. Inspired by this visit, he began working on an expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965. However, he was not much satisfied with his work at DRDO and was happy to be transferred to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1969. There he served as the project director of the SLV-III, India’s first indigenously designed and produced satellite launch vehicle. In the 1970s, he began making efforts to develop the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into Sun-synchronous orbits, the nation’s PSLV project was an eventual success; it was first launched on 20 September 1993. A.P.J. Kalam also directed several other projects, including Project Devil, in the 1970s. Project Devil was an early liquid-fueled missile project aimed at producing a short-range surface-to-air missile. The project was not a success in the long-term and was discontinued in the 1980s.