N Valarmathi, ISRO scientist and the voice behind Rocket Countdown, dies

Dr PV Venkitakrishnan, former ISRO chief, mourned his passing on X (formerly Twitter) and said Chadrayaan-3 was his last countdown announcement.

“The voice of Valarmathi Madam will not be there for the countdowns of future missions of ISRO from Sriharikotta. Chandrayan 3 was her final countdown announcement. An unexpected demise. Feel so sad. Pranams!" Dr Venkitakrishnan wrote on X.

Gareeb Scientist wrote, "Eevry launch I waited for her voice to say T-10...."

Puru wrote, "Her voice, Om Shanti"

Another user Vivek Singh wrote, "T-10 & lift off normal Will always miss these Golden lines"

Pawan wrote, "Very, very sad to hear this. We worked closely with her for our Vikram-S launch last year, for which she was the voice for the launch countdown."

India became the first country to land on the Moon's south pole in August when Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the lunar surface. It is also the fourth country (after the United States, China and Russia) to have managed to land on the moon.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission has three components: the propulsion module, which transferred the lander and the rover module to 100 kilometres of lunar orbit; the Lander module, which was responsible for the soft landing of the lunar craft; and the Rover module, which is for exploring components on the moon.