24
Jul
Bengaluru: Udupi Ramachandra Rao, who passed away here on Monday, was an Indian space scientist par excellence who headed the ISRO for a decade.Popularly known as U.R. Rao, the 85-year-old was Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from 1984 to 1994, succeeding Satish Dhawan. Born on March 10, 1932, near Udupi, Rao was Chairman of the Governing Council of the space agency's Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) at Ahmedabad and Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology at Thiruvananthapuram. The Indian government early this year conferred the country's second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan, on Rao, who…