Rocket launcher

She develops missiles for a living, but Prashanth Chintala is struck by how much Tessy Thomas looks like a typical middle-class housewife.

Born in Alleppey, close to the Thumba Rocket Launching Station in Kerala, Tessy Thomas has been familiar with the sounds of rockets launching since childhood. But she could not have imagined then that four decades down the line she herself would develop and launch missiles.

The 48-year-old scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), fondly dubbed “missile woman” or “Agni Putri” (daughter of fire) by the media, heads the team that successfully tested the Agni-IV missile last month. Agni-IV, that can hit a target as far away as 3,500 kilometres, is the longest range missile developed indigenously until now. And Thomas is the first-ever woman director of an Indian missile project. Naturally she has caught the attention of the nation. Yet she remains unassuming, laughing away the attention. “It is okay. I am happy that people have come to know what we have done, that we have successfully tested a world-class system. Full credit goes to DRDO, not to any individual,” she says.

A shy woman with a friendly smile, Thomas looks like a typical middle-class housewife and is difficult to imagine as leader of a team of high-profile scientists engaged in developing missiles. Even the second-floor apartment allotted to her by DRDO looks like any old government flat with old-fashioned mosaic flooring. Modest in size and furnishing, the only decoration in the spotlessly clean sitting area are three Agni prototypes and a memento, and the only indication of the importance of her job is the armed guard outside.

Thomas is currently focusing on developing Agni-V. The nuclear-capable missile will have a 5,000-km range and place India in an elite club of nations like the US, Russia and China that are capable of producing Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs). “We are preparing to test Agni-V in the next two months,” Thomas says. Currently, the longest range ICBM in the world is capable of hitting a target 12,000 km away. Asked whether we have a long way to go to achieve that capability, Thomas says “that is for the DRDO to say, not me” adding, however, that the required “technology is in our hands”.

If Thomas sounds confident, she has reason to be. Agni-IV marks several innovations in missile technology. One, its composite rocket motor is made of lightweight composites instead of the heavier “maraging steel” used earlier. Other firsts include a high-accuracy ring-laser gyroscope-based inertial navigation system, a micro-navigation system and a powerful new onboard computer which helps Agni-IV strike close to the target and so carry smaller nuclear warheads.

* * * * *

Interested in science and mathematics since she was in school, Thomas did her BTech from Thrissur Engineering College at Kozhikode, where she took up radar systems — an “odd choice” for an electrical engineer — as an elective. Soon afterwards, Thomas saw a recruitment advertisement by DRDO for scientists and joined the organisation in 1985. Thereafter, she did an MTech in guided-missiles from the Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technologies.

As Thomas had a missiles technology background, former President A P J Abdul Kalam, who was then director of DRDO’s Advanced Systems Laboratory, assigned her the Agni missile project in 1988. Two decades later, she became the project director. When Agni-II Prime, Agni-IV’s earlier avatar, plunged into the Bay of Bengal just 30 seconds after its launch last December, Thomas was disappointed. “Technically no fault was found. We immediately sent it for analysis. We later found that there were control-related problems,” she recalls. Thomas, however, did not allow the failure to get her down. “The event disheartens, [but] there is always an opportunity to learn from such episodes as the system is being developed for the first time.”

The “textbook fashion” launch of Agni-IV must have helped to silence the doubting Thomases this time.

Ever since Thomas has got involved in the Agni programme, she has had a gruelling work schedule. Her typical work day starts at about 4.30 in the morning. She cooks for the family before she leaves for office around 9 am, returning home around 10 pm. In fact, she had asked me to meet her at home at 8.30 am in order to be in office on time. “Even now the daily schedule is the same because there always is one project or the other to handle. I look after the mission part of the project.”

Nevertheless, Thomas feels she is “fortunate” to have such a job. “It is challenging and also gives a lot of satisfaction. Every core scientist in the DRDO has to put in a lot of hard work and to spend long hours in office to meet the tough schedules of the organisation,” she says. Thomas denies any gender-bias in the DRDO, saying she gets full cooperation from her team members. Her group consists of 12 scientists, with all of them interacting regularly as missile development is “not one person’s job”.

Thomas has no personal goals. All her goals are project-related. “I believe in doing my job and all the rest will happen in its own way,” she says. With her husband based in Visakhapatnam, where he is posted as a Navy commodore, and her son studying engineering at Vellore in Tamil Nadu, Thomas seems to have become adept at balancing her personal and professional lives.

Though Hyderabad has now become a second home for this Keralite, she has not yet decided whether to settle down permanently in the City of Pearls. “It all depends on where our son wants to settle down,” she says, as she gets up to rush to her office, the gun-wielding security guard running after her to the waiting car outside.