Prahlad Chandra Agrawal was honoured with the COSPAR Harrie Massey Award 2024 at the 45th COSPAR Scientific Assembly opening ceremony in Busan, South Korea, on July 15.

He is the first Indian to receive this award for his contributions to space research. The award is given for exceptional leadership in the field of space research.

The recipient is presented with a medal and citation, and a planet is named after them (20064 Prahladagrawal). Agrawal, aged 83, played a key role in the AstroSat project, India’s first multi-wavelength space telescope, launched on September 28, 2015.

Originally planned as a five-year mission, AstroSat continues to produce valuable data and has contributed to over 500 research papers and more than 30 PhD theses.

Data from AstroSat is available to researchers worldwide. Previously, Agrawal served as a senior professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in the Space Physics department and was a member of the Lunar Task Force that prepared the project report for India’s first Moon mission (Chandrayaan 1).

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