President was keen to see Capsule Recovery Experiment: Nair

Chennai, Feb 13 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam was keen to visit the city when the Indian Space programme attained a significant milestone by successfully recovering the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), a forerunner to mastering reusable technology, from the sea, ISRO Chief G Madhavan Nair said today.

The SRE-1, launched by the ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle PSLV, had splashed into the Bay of Bengal, 140 km east of Sriharikota, on January 22 after orbiting 12 days in space.

''He (Dr Kalam) wanted to come to Chennai to witness the SRE-1 recovery experiment. Since it was a day-long programme, as we had to transport the SRE from to Chennai and then take it back to Sriharikota, he did not come''.

''But he was very keen to witness it'', Dr Nair said and added that Dr Kalam was closely associated with the ISRO's programmes and had given a lot of suggestions and valuable inputs'', Dr Nair said during an interactive session with the students of the Velammal Matriculation school here tonight.

UNI