S. Nambi Narayanan is an Indian aerospace scientist who worked for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and contributed significantly to the Indian space program by developing the Vikas rocket engine. He led the team which acquired technology from the French for the Vikas engine used in the first Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that India launched. As a senior official at the ISRO, he was in charge of the cryogenics division. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award, in March 2019.

In 1994, he was arrested on trumped up charges of espionage, being subjected to physical abuse while in the custody of the Kerala Police. The charges against him were found to be baseless by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in April 1996. As a result, the Supreme Court of India dismissed all charges against him and prohibited the Government of Kerala from continuing its investigation on technical grounds. In 2018, a Supreme Court bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra, awarded Narayanan a compensation of ₹50 lakh. Additionally, the Government of Kerala then awarded him further compensation to the tune of ₹1.3 crore in 2019. The film Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, based on his life, starring and directed by R. Madhavan, was released in July 2022.

Early and personal life

Nambi Narayanan was born on 12 December 1941 in the house of Tamil Hindu parents in Nagercoil, in the erstwhile Princely state of Travancore. He completed his schooling at Higher Secondary School, Nagercoil. He received a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. Narayanan lost his father while pursuing his degree in Madurai, with his mother falling sick soon after. He had two sisters. Nambi married Meena Narayanan and has two children. Their son, Shankar Nambi, is a businessman. Their daughter Geetha Arunan is a Montessori school teacher in Bangalore and is married to Subbiah Arunan, an ISRO scientist, director of the Mars Orbiter Mission and Padma Shri awardee.

Career

After studying mechanical engineering in Madurai, Narayanan started his career in 1966 at ISRO as a technical assistant at the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station. He was sent to Princeton University on deputation at Government of India's expense in 1969. He completed his master's program there in chemical rocket propulsion under professor Luigi Crocco. He returned to India with expertise in liquid propulsion at a time when Indian rocketry was still solely dependent on solid propellants. He has claimed that he had to educate Sarabhai on liquid propulsion technology in his book.

In 1974, Societe Europeenne de Propulsion agreed to transfer the Viking engine technology in return for 100 man-years of engineering work from ISRO. This transfer was completed by three teams and Narayanan led the team of fifty-two engineers who worked on technology acquisition from French. The other two teams worked on indigenizing the hardware in India and establishing the development facilities in Mahendragiri. The first engine, named Vikas, was tested successfully in 1985. An enquiry by the vigilance cell in 1982 was dropped later.

On 26 January 2019, he was conferred with the Padma Bhushan award by the Government of India for developing the Vikas rocket engine.

Awards

March 2019: Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award.

In popular culture

Books

Ormakalude Bhramanapadham: An Autobiography by Nambi Narayanan, Prajesh Sen; Thrissur Current Books, 2017.
Ready To Fire: How India and I Survived the ISRO Spy Case by Nambi Narayanan, Arun Ram; Bloomsbury India, 2018.

Filmography

In December 2012, he acted as a professor in a documentary, Mizhineerkayal, about the Alleppey-Kuttanad backwaters.
In July 2022, a biographical film was made titled Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, written, directed by R. Madhavan, who also played the titular role of Narayanan.