Scientists at NASA have named a new organism discovered by them after the late president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, JPL, the foremost lab of NASA for work on inter-planetary travel, discovered the new bacteria on the filters of the International Space Station, ISS, and named it Solibacillus kalamii to honour the late president.

The species name, kalamii, is after the renowned aerospace scientist and genus name is Solibacillus, which is a spore forming bacteria. The filter on which the new bug was found remained on board the International Space Station for 40 months.

Till date, the new organism, a form of a bacteria, has been found only on the ISS, and has not been found on earth. Kalam had his early training at NASA in 1963 before he set up India’s first rocket-launching facility in the fishing village of Thumba in Kerala.