A month before his demise, Abdul Kalam advised current DRDO chief to work on reusable missiles
27th July marks fourth death anniversary of former president
New Delhi, Jul 27: Just a month before his demise, former President APJ Abdul Kalam had advised DRDO chief Satheesh Reddy to work on reusable missiles system that can deliver a payload and launch it, come back and take another payload.
Reddy was then the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister.
"After I became the scientific adviser, I met him (Kalam) at his residence just a month before his demise. He came up with the idea of reusable missile, delivering a payload, coming back, then take another payload and launch it... 'Work on this type of system', he told me," Reddy recalled.
The meeting was held at the library.
"That is the vision he had," Reddy added.
Kalam died on July 27. The former president resided at 10, Rajaji Marg, a single-storey bungalow spread over an area of 11,776 sq ft with the ground floor housing a library and an attached reading space.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman said he first came in contact with Kalam as a young scientist in 1986.
In 2012, the then DRDO Chairman V K Saraswat, in an interview to Doordarshan, said India plans to develop reusable missile system.
"We have propulsion technology, we have re-entry technologies, we have the technology which can take a re-entry system which will deliver a payload and have yet another re-entry system which will bring the missile back when it re-enters the atmosphere on its return journey," Saraswat said.
Reusable rockets are currently becoming popular. With its Falcon 9, Elon Musk's SpaceX is also looking at capitalising on this technology. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully flight tested Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD).
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
