UAE’s Mars mission has Telangana connect

Sahith Reddy, with roots in Karimnagar district, is UAE’s National Point of Contact for Space Generation Advisory Council in support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications.

Jeddah: A 24-year-old aerospace research engineer, Sahith Reddy Madara, made Telangana proud when the United Arab Emirates (UAE) made history as its first-ever interplanetary Hope Mission successfully entered the orbit around Mars on Tuesday.

Sahith Reddy, with roots in Karimnagar district, is UAE’s National Point of Contact for Space Generation Advisory Council in support of the United Nations Programme on Space Applications. He will be involved in the evaluation of data sent by the Hope probe. He is among the scores of people who worked for the success of the Mars mission.

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Born in Narsingapur village in Veenavanka mandal and brought up in Sharjah where his parents Kondal Reddy and Uma Devi live, Sahith Reddy studied in Hyderabad, Sharjah and Dubai. “Nothing can stop a person from achieving if s/he is determined to reach the goal,” he said, speaking to ‘Telangana Today’ over phone. “I was fascinated with rockets even as a child, and I grew up reading science fiction. I was inspired by APJ Abdul Kalam and Carl Sagan. I was naive then in thinking that it would only be a hobby and not a real job,” he said.

“A majority of Mars missions ended in failure – crashing, burning up or otherwise falling short that is a testament to the complexity of inter-planetary travel. But, UAE made it a success as it wants to achieve the object”, he added.

For Sahith Reddy, joining the Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology as an aerospace research engineer was a dream come true. He was part of Sharjah’s first 3U astronomical cube-satellite named Sharjah-Sat-1 for observing solar coronal holes and bright X-ray sources galaxy. He also contributed to the building of a second UAE meteor monitoring network.

He was full of praise for the UAE leadership for their support to merit, irrespective of race and creed. His advice to Indian students is to be ambitious and dream. “To achieve this, one must work hard,” he added.

Sahith Reddy is pursuing higher studies in Aerospace Systems Engineering at the ISAE-SUPAERO (National Higher French Institute of Aeronautics and Space) in France. Concurrently with his course-work at ISAE-SUPAERO, he is also doing his ITP (real-time industrial project) with Airbus Defense and Space on the topic ‘Optimizing the OneWeb Satellite Ground Stations Operational Availability using Model-Based Systems Engineering.”

Meanwhile, there were scenes of jubilation across the country when the UAE’s Mars Mission, known as Amal (meaning Hope in Arabic), entered the orbit in its first attempt. Burj Khalifa and other major landmarks turned red as the announcement of the mission’s success was made.

The Hope Probe marked the UAE as only the fifth country in history to reach the red planet and the Arab nation’s first interplanetary mission.

Former ISRO chief K Radhakrishna, who was instrumental in the success Mangalyaan Mission, joined the United Arab Emirates Space Agency after he retired from the Indian space agency.

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