He was the "face" of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) for the past six years and G Madhavan Nair is a highly satisfied man, but says two flop missions under his stewardship have "hurt" him.
"I will say that I am a highly satisfied man," the ISRO chairman said a day before he retires from the space agency with the acme of his 42-year long career being the successful launch of India's maiden moon mission Chandrayaan-I.
Nair rates realisation of the lunar mission as the high-point of his career.
"The number of (space) missions that I have handled...only on two occasions...yes we have flopped...that too not because of any great technological (challenge) or anything. Silly mistakes. That has really hurt me. But of course, we have learnt from those mistakes and recovered," he told PTI in an interview.
He was referring to the failure of GSLV-F02 in 2006, which plunged into the Bay of Bengal shortly after lift-off carrying communication satellite INSAT4-C. The GSLV launch vehicle and the satellite were considered two separate missions.
Barring these two, Nair had successfully overseen 25 other missions of ISRO during his six year tenure.
"The pinnacle of my career has been achieved, especially in the last six years. Leadership position has enabled me to lead the organisation to scale greater heights. I know that we now have a very stabilised programme," Nair said. Nair, 66, gave enough indications that post-Isro, he is not the one who is going to fade away.
Scientists don't end their career abruptly "just like that," he said.
"Knowledge and experience that we got...it has to be utilised. My services are available to the nation at any capacity. I would like to contribute further to national development."
And are there any proposals that he is weighing now? Nair chose to hold his card close to his chest.
"Nothing specific at the moment. But I have to work out. I will work out some plan".
Writing a book is not something he has thought about at the moment but he added "let me see".
Nair, who adopted a business-like approach at Isro, says making the space agency more robust, commercially-oriented and compete aggressively in the global marketplace, is not easy.
"It's an uphill task. We have to make Indian industries perform. We have initiated something. I will say may be 30% satisfaction level has been achieved. But we have to really make industries good partners with us".
But he asserted that ISRO has a "very stabilised programme" now. Nair pointed out that he has already launched the second vision for Isro which would be completed by year 2025."Stage is set. I am happy that I am handing over charge to an able colleague (K Radhakrishnan) who has performed and established himself. I am sure under his leadership, things will fructify and the organisation will prosper further", Nair said on his successor.
He does not believe he had any unfinished agenda at Isro.
"Isro has continuity", Nair said, pointing out the second vision and reiterating that his successor would definitely be able to implement it.
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