ISRO Scientific Secretary dies in mishap

The Scientific Secretary to the ISRO has died and another top official injured when the car in which they were travelling rammed into a truck near the temple town of Tirupati.

The Scientific Secretary to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Rajeev Lochan, has died and another top official injured when the car in which they were travelling rammed into a truck near the temple town of Tirupati.

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S Krishnamurthy, Director (Publications & Public Relations), who was travelling with him, received multiple injuries and has been hospitalised, ISRO Chairman, G Madhavan Nair, said here.

The car driver was also killed in the mishap on Wednesday night.

"It's unfortunate. We lost an able scientist," Nair said.

The officials were on their way to the organisation's space centre at Sriharikota from where it plans to launch the latest communication satellite, INSAT-4CR, on September one on board Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, he said.

Lochan is a doctorate in aerospace engineering and is survived by wife and two children, sources said.