India’s Moon rush: the lowdown on the top scientists making New Delhi’s ambitions fly

India’s third mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-3, lifted off successfully on Friday from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, off the country’s east coast. Behind the spectacular rocket launch are over 17,000 employees of the  Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and a scientist who spearheaded the mission. 

India’s third mission to the Moon, and its second attempt to land on it, is a major stride in a space journey that has expanded rapidly since Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008. India is now trying to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface and, if successful, will join the Soviet Union, the USA and China as the only states to have landed on the Moon. 

Chandrayaan-3’s lander craft, called Vikram, is expected to touch down on the surface of the Moon on August 23 or 24. ISRO chairman S Somanath, who addressed a press conference shortly after the July-14 launch of Chandrayaan-3, hinted at the fourth edition of India’s Moon mission. “Let’s pray for [the success of Chandrayaan-3], if this happens very well, we will have Chandrayaan-4,” he said. Asked about a tentative time frame of the rover’s landing on the lunar surface, the ISRO chief said, “If everything goes normal the final power descent and landing is currently planned at 5:47 pm on August 23,” according to Indian media reports, the time given being local. 

Ahead of the countdown on Friday, ISRO chairman Sreedhara Panicker Somanath and several key scientists visited the Tirupati Venkatachalapathy Temple, a Hindu shrine, with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3, to pray for the mission’s success. On Friday, as government officials, political figures, business leaders and ordinary citizens cheered, the spacecraft was safely placed in orbit. A video of top scientists at the ISRO, who’ve spent years working to ensure the successful launch, went viral. So who are the people behind New Delhi’s ambitious mission?

S Somanath, Chairman, the Indian Space Research Organisation 

S Somanath, head of  ISRO and leader of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. He previously served as the director of two primary centers for development of rocket technologies for ISRO, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) in Valiamala, Kerala. India’s crucial space missions such as Chandrayaan-3, Aditya-L1 (Sun mission), and Gaganyaan (human spaceflight program) have gained momentum since Somanath assumed charge as ISRO chief in January 2022.

P Veeramuthuvel, Project Director, Chandrayaan-3

P Veeramuthuvel took charge as Chandrayaan-3 project director in 2019. Earlier, he was deputy director in the Space Infrastructure Programme Office at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru. He is known for his technical acumen and had played a key role in the Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019. ISRO has designated P Veeramuthuvel to hold negotiations with NASA, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director, VSSC

Unnikrishnan Nair is an Indian aerospace engineer serving as the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). He and his team members are in charge of a range of functions of the Chandrayaan-3 mission. The Launch Vehicle Mark-III, a three-stage medium-lift launch vehicle, was developed by VSSC at Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram under his watch. In the recent past, Nair headed the delegations to Russia for the countries’ cooperation in human spaceflight programs. 

A Rajarajan, Chairman, Launch Authorisation Board (LAB)

A Rajarajan, a distinguished scientist, is the Director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, he is an expert in the area of Composites. His priorities were on the development of Solid Motor Production and of Launch Complex Infrastructure to meet an increased demand on ISRO for launches, including Gaganyaan and Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLVs). The LAB is the nodal unit that gives the go-ahead for the launch. 

M Sankaran, Director, U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) 

M Sankaran took over in 2021 as Director of URSC, the lead center for design, development and realization of all ISRO satellites. He is leading the satellite confraternity to meet the national requirements in fields such as communication, navigation, remote sensing, meteorology and inter-planetary exploration. 

Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, Senior Scientist, ISRO

Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, who is a senior scientist at ISRO and is widely known as India’s ‘rocket woman,’ spearheaded the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Before this, she played a key role in realizing the Mars Orbiter Mission. The senior scientist, who holds a postgraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru, developed interest in exploring space from a tender age. She joined ISRO in November, 1997.

Mission director Mohan Kumar, who looks after the operational aspects of Chandrayaan-3, and vehicle director Biju C Thomas are two other notable members of the team. Around 54 women engineers and scientists have worked directly on the mission, a senior official of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS news agency.