India landed on the Moon with the successful Lander Module landing of Chandrayaan-3, the third lunar mission launched by ISRO. It also made history by being the first nation to set foot close to the Moon’s south pole. India became the fourth nation, after the USSR, the United States, and China, to successfully make a soft landing on the lunar surface when the Lander Module (LM) of the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3, launched on July 14, successfully touched down on the moon’s surface on August 23.
At the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), Bengaluru, there were jubilant celebrations when the lander exactly touched the lunar surface at 6.03 p.m. Everyone is talking about the mission, but no one is talking about the people who made all this happen. Let us meet the leaders who led from the front for the Chandrayaan-3 success
Chairman of ISRO, S Somanath
S Somnath took over as Isro’s leader last year and has since given his all to the mission. He is one of the most well-known individuals behind the Chandrayaan -3 mission. He has also been credited with accelerating Isro’s other missions, such as Gaganyaan (India’s first crewed mission) and Aditya-L1 (India’s mission to study the sun), in addition to Chandrayaan-3.
Project Director for Chandrayaan-3, P Veeramuthuvel
Chandrayaan-3’s project director, P Veeramuthuvel, assumed leadership in 2019. P Veeamuthuvel is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras (IIT-M) and is originally from Villupuram in Tamil Nadu. For the past four years, he has been putting a lot of effort on the Chandrayaan-3 project.
Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, S. Unnikrishnan Nair
Chandrayaan-3, India’s largest space project, is handled by S Unnikrishnan Nair and his team at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-III, currently known as Launch Vehicle Mark-III, was created by his team at VSSC. Dr. Unnikrishnan graduated from the Indian Institute of Science and is a professional aeronautical engineer.
Director of the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, M. Sankaran
M Sankaran, who assumed leadership of URSC in June 2021, is a director there. The satellites that India will build for Isro will be designed and built by his team at URSC. The URSC team works on satellites that satisfy Isro’s criteria for communication, weather forecasting, remote sensing, navigation, and planetary exploration under the direction of M Sankaran.
Mission’s director, Mohana Kumar
S Mohanna Kumar is a distinguished scientist at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and the mission director for LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3. Previously, S Mohanna oversaw the LVM3-M3 mission’s commercial launch of the One Web India 2 satellites. The LVM3-M4 has once again shown to be the most dependable heavy lift vehicle for Isro, according to S Mohanna Kumar. She also added that his team is working hard to increase the LVM’s safety and dependability so that we can perform more launches on a regular basis.
Chief of the Launch Authorization Board, A Rajarajan
The director of India’s main spaceport, Sriharikota, which houses the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), is A Rajarajan. As the director of SDSC SHAR, he was in charge of building the launch complex’s infrastructure and solid motor production to fulfil the demands of Isro launches as well as launches for the Human Space Programme (Gaganyaan) and SSLV.
These are just a few names; the credit for Chandrayaan-3 belongs to all the Isro scientists, engineers, technicians, and other people who made India proud. These Unsung Chandrayaan-3 Heroes helped India in imprinting its footprint on the moon’s surface.
