After the successful launch of Chandrayaan 3, India became the first country to soft land near the moon’s south pole. Scientists who worked on Chandrayaan 3 were jubilant and pictures and videos of them celebrating their success began doing the rounds. S Somanath, the chief of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) addressed the media shortly after the landing and shared praise for his team who made this possible. Here are some of the key team members who worked on Chandrayaan 3 and were responsible for its success:
S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO: Somanath headed the Chandrayaan 3 project in less than a year after he took over as the Chairman of ISRO. Born to a Hindi teacher in Kerala in 1963, Somanath studied Mechanical Engineering in Thangal Kunju Musaliar (TKM) College of Engineering and went on to study Aerospace Engineering in Indian Institute of Science (IISc). Somanath joined the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in 1985 and worked on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). He went on to become the Deputy Director of VSSC in 2010. In 2015, Somanath was the Director of Liquid Propulsions System Centre at Thiruvananthapuram and served there till 2018 before taking over as the Director of VSSC.
Veeramuthuvel, Project Director of Chandrayaan 3: Hailing from Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram, Veeramuthuvel is the son of a technician in the Southern Railway. Born in 1976, the scientist studied in the Railway Mixed High School in Villupuram before going on to get his Master’s degree from NIT in Trichy. He then worked in Lakshmi Machine Works Industry before moving on to Rotary Wing Research and Design Unit of Hindustan Aeronautical Limited’s Helicopter Division in Bengaluru. In 2004, Veeramuthuvel joined the ISRO as an engineer and worked in several important projects like Mangalyaan, India’s first mission to Mars. After he joined ISRO, Veeramuthuvel got his PhD from IIT Madras and eventually worked his way up to the Deputy Director of space infrastructure programme office. When he was serving as the Deputy Director, he was chosen to be the Project Director of Chandrayaan 3.
Kalpana K, Deputy Director of Chandrayaan 3: Kalpana was born in Bengaluru in 1980 and graduated from IIT Kharagpur with a degree in Aeronautical Engineering. She joined the ISRO as a young scientist in 2003 and was a part of Mangalyaan Mission and Chandrayaan 2 as well. Apart from that, she also worked on various satellite projects and has been credited for the success of several satellite launches with remote sensing capabilities. In 2019, she took over as the Deputy Director of Chandrayaan 3 and was a part of designing and optimising lunar lander systems.
Ritu Karidhal Srivatsava, Senior Scientist, ISRO: Dubbed as one of the ‘Rocket Women’ of India, Ritu Karidhal served as the Mission Director of Chandrayaan 2 and the Deputy Operations Director of Mangalyaan before working on Chandrayaan 3. Born in Lucknow in 1975, completed her Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Lucknow before enrolling there for her PhD. Ritu also taught at her alma mater briefly before joining IISc in Bengaluru to study Aeronautical Engineering. Ritu has won several accolades for her work including the ISRO Young Scientist Award in 2007 from former President APJ Abdul Kalam, ISRO Team Award for Mangalyaan, and Women Achievers in Aerospace in 2017 which was awarded by Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies and Industries.
Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of VSSC: Unnikrishnan and his team were responsible for building the LMV-3-M4 rocket that propelled Chandrayaan 3 into space. Born in Kottayam, Unnikrishnan got his Mechanical Engineering degree from Mar Athanasius College of Engineering in Kerala and went on to get his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from IISc and PhD in IIT Madras. He joined the VSSC in 1985 and assumed office as the Director in 2022. Prior to that, he was the Director of the Human Space Flight Centre in Bengaluru. Unnikrishnan also went on to win the ISRO Team Excellence Award for his work in the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE).
Apart from the above-mentioned scientists, several reports said that close to 54 women scientists and engineers worked directly on Chandrayaan-3. They worked in various capacities including associate and deputy project directors and project managers of various systems that were required for Chandrayaan’s successful launch.