DRDO DG VK Saraswat, flanked by AGNI-4 Project Director Tessy Thomas
during a press conference on successful launch of Agni IV in New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI)
NEW DELHI: Tessy Thomas can take a bow as 'Agni Putri', or the daughter of fire, proving as she has her mettle as the project director of the 3,500-km new-generation Agni-IV missile that was successfully test-fired on Tuesday.
Having systematically broken gender barriers in the decidedly male preserve of strategic weapons and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles over the last two decades , does she still feel out of place? "No, not at all. Science has no gender. I have five-six women working in my team," the 48-year-old beaming DRDO scientist told TOI.
There are around 20 other women scientists working on the Agni programme, but Hyderabad-based Thomas was the first to become the project director of an Agni system in 2008. She was a little down and out last December, when Agni-IV's earlier avtaar Agni-II-Prime plunged into the Bay of Bengal barely 30 seconds into its parabolic trajectory.
"It was a failure but not a complete failure. We were perplexed but we got lot of support and encouragement...it motivated us to work harder,"she said on Wednesday.
The team led by Thomas, at Wheelers' Island off the Odisha coast, prepared, fired and tracked the nuclear-capable missile as it attained a height of 900-km and then splashed down near the pre-designated target in the Bay of Bengal over 3,000-km away. "Next, we have to do Agni-V," she said.
"Dr A P J Kalam was my original guru. He was my director. I have been with the Agni programme since 1988...I have designed the guidance programmes for all the Agni missiles,'' she said. From the original 'missile man' to the new 'missile woman', things have indeed come full circle.
Having systematically broken gender barriers in the decidedly male preserve of strategic weapons and nuclear-capable ballistic missiles over the last two decades , does she still feel out of place? "No, not at all. Science has no gender. I have five-six women working in my team," the 48-year-old beaming DRDO scientist told TOI.
There are around 20 other women scientists working on the Agni programme, but Hyderabad-based Thomas was the first to become the project director of an Agni system in 2008. She was a little down and out last December, when Agni-IV's earlier avtaar Agni-II-Prime plunged into the Bay of Bengal barely 30 seconds into its parabolic trajectory.
"It was a failure but not a complete failure. We were perplexed but we got lot of support and encouragement...it motivated us to work harder,"she said on Wednesday.
The team led by Thomas, at Wheelers' Island off the Odisha coast, prepared, fired and tracked the nuclear-capable missile as it attained a height of 900-km and then splashed down near the pre-designated target in the Bay of Bengal over 3,000-km away. "Next, we have to do Agni-V," she said.
"Dr A P J Kalam was my original guru. He was my director. I have been with the Agni programme since 1988...I have designed the guidance programmes for all the Agni missiles,'' she said. From the original 'missile man' to the new 'missile woman', things have indeed come full circle.
The scientists&technicians&others deserve congratulations and NOT the minister or crooked rulers! Why we have such weapons and spend trillions of dollars on when we have a non-violent british agent MK Gandhi as our great leader??? In fact MK Gandhi&nehru have wrecked our nation forever&made us a banna republic of 100 crore morronic&ennuch&cowrad hindus too.Now let us have an ICBM ,nulcear-capable inter-continental ballistic missile, capable of reaching americas too!It is crooked westerners who are our real enemies and NOT china, Let us mkae friendship treaty and economic and monteray block like european union with China,Asean nations except talibanic malaysia, with Brazil&South africa&Russia and TAX all western produtcts 100 or 200% without delay, in another 10 years we can be a super power like China! But we need to kick out crooked nehru dynasty from power without any delay for the above dream to be realised too!
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