Madhavan Pillai Ramakrishna Kurup was an Indian rocket scientist and the founder of the first solid rocket propellant plant in India at the

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) is a major space research centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), focusing on rocket and space vehicles for India's satellite programme. It is located in Thiruvananthapuram, in the India ...

. He is known to have contributed to the successful launching of the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) as the director of the VSSC centre in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

in 1990.

Biography

Kurup was born in Chengannur, in the south Indian state of

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

to C. N. Madhavan Pillai, a lawyer. Kurup started his career by joining the

(VSSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). He worked in VSSC in various capacities such as General Manager, Deputy Director and Chief Executive of Chemicals, Materials and Propulsion unit where he had the opportunity to work alongside A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the space scientist who would later become the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...

. During his tenure there, he established the first solid rocket propulsion plant in the country for propellants, propulsion and pyrotechnics. He was a member of the team selected by

Vikram Sarabhai Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (12 August 1919 – 30 December 1971) was an Indian physicist and astronomer who initiated space research and helped develop nuclear power in India. He was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1966 and the Padma Vibhushan ...

to design the first Indian

satellite launch vehicle The Satellite Launch Vehicle or SLV was a small-lift launch vehicle project started in the early 1970s by the Indian Space Research Organisation to develop the technology needed to launch satellites. SLV was intended to reach a height of and c ...

, which was composed of Kurup, Vasant Gowarikar, A. E. Muthunayagam and Udupi Ramachandra Rao among others. He was the Design Project Leader of the second stage and was closely associated with the project till the launch of the vehicle on 10 August 1979. Later, he moved to

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range - SHAR) is a rocket launch centre ( spaceport) operated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. Sriharikota ...

in Sriharikota in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

, established a similar plant in the 1970s and superannuated from service as the director of the SHAR centre. The Government of India included him in the 1990 Republic Day honours list for the civilian award of the

. The Indian Society for Non-Destructive Testing has instituted an annual lecture, the M. R. Kurup Memorial Lecture, in his honour.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kurup, M. R. Recipients of the Padma Shri in science & engineering Year of birth missing Year of death missing People from Alappuzha district Malayali people Scientists from Kerala Indian space scientists Indian Space Research Organisation people Engineers from Kerala 20th-century Indian engineers Indian chemical engineers

Biography

See also

References