Google on Monday celebrated the 100th birth anniversary of the father of India’s space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, with a doodle.
Dr. Sarabhai, a scientist and innovator, was born in Ahmedabad in 1919. He did his PhD from Cambridge University and founded the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) at Ahmedabad in November 1947.
He is known to have convinced the Indian government in setting up a space programme, following Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch.
He also established the Indian National Committee for Space Research in 1962, which today is known as the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Apart from ISRO and PRL, Dr Sarabhai was instrumental in setting up several other institutions such as the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, Community Science Centre, and the Darpan Academy for Performing Arts.
He worked on India’s first satellite, Aryabhata which was launched four years after his death. Dr Sarabhai was conferred with Padma Bhushan in 1966 and Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 1972.
A crater on the moon is named after him.
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