Chennai:The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday awarded the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam award to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr K Sivan, under whose leadership, India's second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 mission, was launched on July 22.
The award was announced during the Independence Day.Since he could not be present at the Independence Day celebrations at the Fort St. George, he received the award from Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at the State Secretariat today.
The award, carrying a gold medal and a certificate was presented to him.A native of Kanniyakumari district, Dr Sivan was popularly known as the 'Rocket Man', the citation said.
Earlier, talking to reporters at the airport, Dr Sivan said the Lander, one of the payloads of Chandrayaan-2, would make a soft landing on the moon at 0155 hrs on September seven.
He said the soft landing manoeuvers would commenceat 0140 hrs by reducing the speed and the Lander would make a soft landing on the lunar's south polar region, where no country has reached so far, at 0155 hrs after which the six-wheeled robot Rover (pragyan) wouldcome out of it and conduct insitu experiments.
Stating that Chandrayaan-2 mission was being watched with keen interest globally, ISRO was also having plans for the third moon mission Chandrayaan-3.
On a woman scientist being the project director for Chandrayaan-2 and more women would be given such responsibilities, Dr Sivan said ''we do not differentiate between men and women and all talented people gets the recognition and opportunity.''(UNI)