Chandrayaan-2 women scientists aimed for stars, landed on the moon

Tribune Web Desk 
Chandigarh, July 23 

As soon as Chandrayaan-2 soared up into the skies, there was much cheer among countrymen. 

The country’s second visit to the moon has been made possible by years of hard work by Muthayya Vanitha, who is the project director, and it will be navigated to the moon by mission director Ritu Karidhal Srivastava.

M Vanitha, who has spent 32 years at ISRO, is the daughter of a civil engineer and an electronics and communications engineer from Chennai.

In the beginning, M Vanitha was reluctant to accept the responsibility of being a project director. 

M Vanitha is an electronics system engineer and has the heavy burden of handling the mission. She was responsible for data handling systems for India's remote sensing satellite. 

"I joined here as juniormost engineer. So I worked in the lab, testing carts, making hardware, designing developing and then reached a managerial position," Vanitha said.

"I can easily understand the other person’s mindset and I can get along with them and we have all been together for so many years... I also learnt to understand what each person's role and their responsibility was and I respect the input I get from them," she added.

Ritu Karidhal, an aerospace engineer, has spent 22 years at ISRO. A graduate of Lucknow University and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, she played a key role in navigating ISRO's ‘Mangalyaan’ spacecraft to Mars. She is now Mission Director for Chandrayaan 2.

In 1997, Ritu received a letter inviting her to join the Indian Space Research Organisation office in Bengaluru. The decision was tough but her parents allowed her to go and pursue her dreams.

The house in Rajajipuram, where Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, the mission director of Chandrayan-2, lived is suddenly the centre of attraction and has acquired a celebrity status overnight.

Ritu's husband, Avinash, and their two children Aditya and Anisha, are her biggest supporters in her starry mission.

The phones were continuously engaged and after considerable effort, Ritu's sister Varsha agreed to speak.

"We are so proud of our sister. After our parents' demise, she is the eldest in the family and has been a mother figure to me and my brother Rohit," she said.

"Her family support is so strong that she has been able to devote full time and energy to her dreams," says Varsha.

The girl who stared at the stars has finally touched the moon. With Agencies