Bengaluru’s morning calm shattered Friday, April 25, 2025, when news broke that K Kasturirangan, the titan who steered India’s space program through a golden era, had passed away at his home. He was 84, felled by age-related ailments that had dogged him since a heart attack two years prior. The man who helped launch India into the stars and reshaped its schools was gone, leaving a void as vast as the cosmos he loved.
Kasturirangan’s nine-year reign as chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, from 1994 to 2003, was a masterclass in grit and vision. He oversaw the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle’s rise to reliability, a workhorse that hoisted India’s ambitions into orbit. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle’s first successful test flight? That was under his watch too. He pushed for satellites like IRS-1C and 1D, some of the world’s sharpest civilian eyes in the sky, and laid tracks for Chandrayaan-1, India’s bold leap into lunar exploration. His leadership cemented India as one of six nations with serious space chops, no small feat for a country wrestling with tight budgets and global tech bans after its 1998 nuclear tests.
Born October 24, 1940, in Ernakulam, Kasturirangan was a brainy kid who chased physics degrees at Bombay University before diving into high-energy astronomy at Ahmedabad’s Physical Research Laboratory. By 1971, he had a doctorate and a hunger to probe X-rays and gamma rays from the universe’s wildest corners. His 240-plus papers on space science and astronomy stacked up alongside a career that saw him helm ISRO’s Satellite Centre, where he shepherded the INSAT-2 and early IRS satellites into being. The guy wasn’t just a desk jockey; he was project director for Bhaskara I and II, India’s first stabs at Earth-observing satellites.
After hanging up his ISRO boots, Kasturirangan didn’t fade into the sunset. He served as a Rajya Sabha member from 2003 to 2009, weighed in on India’s Planning Commission, and ran the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bengaluru from 2004 to 2009. His sharpest mark post-ISRO? Chairing the committee that drafted the National Education Policy, a sweeping overhaul that’s still reshaping how India’s kids learn. He also led the Kasturirangan Committee on the Western Ghats, flagging 59,940 square kilometers across six states as ecologically sensitive in a 2013 report that’s sparked debates ever since. Awards piled up—Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan—testaments to a life spent pushing boundaries.
His health took a hit in July 2023, when a heart attack struck while he was in Sri Lanka. Airlifted to Bengaluru’s Narayana Hrudayalaya, he pulled through, but the clock was ticking. On Sunday, April 27, his body will lie at the Raman Research Institute from 10 a.m. to noon, giving the public a chance to pay respects to a man who bridged Earth and sky.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him a “towering figure” whose work on space and education would echo for generations. Science Minister Jitendra Singh hailed him as a “visionary scientist” whose contributions to ISRO would outlive him. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a close mentee, described him as a “wellspring of wisdom” whose quiet strength shaped countless minds.
Kasturirangan is survived by two sons, Rajesh and Sanjay. His wife, Lakshmi, died in 1991. His last rites are set for April 27 at the Raman Research Institute.