Bengaluru: Former ISRO scientist Srinivas Hegde (71), who was the mission director of Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar mission, which discovered water molecules on the moon, passed away at a private hospital on Friday. He is survived by his wife and two sons.
Hegde had the longest career in ISRO from 1978 to 2014. UR Rao was involved in ten space missions as part of the Satellite Center or the then ISRO Satellite Centre.
According to family members, Hegde was undergoing treatment for kidney disease. He suffered a heart attack late on Thursday night and was rushed to a private hospital in Jaynagar, where he breathed his last on Friday afternoon.
M. Annadurai, former ISRO scientist and director of UA Rao Satellite Center, said, “When I joined ISRO in 1982, he was my first then boss. He was a great colleague to work with and was an integral part of Chandrayaan-1 and many other missions we did.