Dr. K. Kasturirangan, former ISRO chief and the man who led the team that drafted India’s National Education Policy (NEP), passed away on Friday in Bengaluru at the age of 84. He was a respected space scientist and played an important role in improving both India’s space program and its education system.

According to officials, he passed away at his home in Bengaluru. His body will be kept at the Raman Research Institute on April 27 for people to pay their last respects. Dr. Kasturirangan was known for leading major education reforms through the NEP. He also served as the chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University and headed the Karnataka Knowledge Commission.

He had also been a Rajya Sabha member from 2003 to 2009 and served on the former Planning Commission of India. Kasturirangan also served as the Director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore from April 2004 to 2009.

ISRO updates

ISRO recently completed the second satellite docking as part of the PSLV-C60/SpaceX mission. The update was shared by the minister through a post on X.

The PSLV-C60/SpaceX mission was launched successfully on December 30, 2024. The satellites were first docked on January 16, 2025, at 6:20 AM and successfully undocked on March 13, 2025, at 9:20 AM. Further experiments related to the mission are scheduled to take place in the next two weeks, the minister added.

The SpaDeX mission, which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on December 30 last year, sent two satellites, SDX01 and SDX02, into space to try out a new docking experiment.

ISRO successfully undocked the two satellites on March 13, 2025, during their first attempt, with the undocking taking place at 9:20 AM (IST). The satellites were undocked while in a circular orbit 460 kilometres above Earth, with a 45-degree tilt. Both satellites are now flying on their own, and everything is working normally.

 

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