Lunar odyssey Chandrayaan-3 lands safely: Minds that made mission possible

New Delhi, August 23

ISRO Chairman S Somanath is considered the key person behind Chandrayaan-3. Somanath served as the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre — both dedicated to the development of rocket technologies for ISRO. Besides Chandrayaan-3, other major missions being readied under Somanath’s supervision are Aditya-L1 (to the sun) and Gaganyaan (India’s first human space mission).

P Veeramuthuvel became the Director of the Chandrayaan-3 project in 2019. He worked as a Deputy Director at the Space Infrastructure Programme Office of ISRO. He also played an important role in the Chandrayaan-2 mission, India’s second moon misson, which went out of control and crashlanded on the lunar surface. Veeramuthuvel is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III, which was renamed the Launch Vehicle Mark-III rocket that carried the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft (comprising the propulsion module and the lander module with the rover inside it), was developed by the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thumba in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram under the supervision of S Unnikrishnan Nair, chief of the centre. Nair and his team are in charge of various key functions of the crucial mission.

M Sankaran, Director at the UR Rao Satellite Centre, assumed the role in June 2021. The centre built the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.

Associate Project Director Kalpana Kalahasti kept the Chandrayaan-3 team working despite the hardships of the Covid pandemic. An engineer who has dedicated her life to making India’s satellites, she was also involved in the Chandrayaan-2 and Mangalyaan missions. When talking about Chandrayaan-3, one cannot overlook the role played by M Srikanth, Mission Operations Director. Having worked for ISRO for over two decades, his expertise spans across various missions, including Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2. Chandrayaan-3 mission is another feather in his cap.

Architects behind Chandrayaan-3 success

M Srikanth
Mission Operations Director

Kalpana Kalahasti
Associate Project Director