The Rs 978-crore unmanned mission brought woman power to the fore as it was helmed by two woman scientists of the ISRO — Ritu Karidhal and Muthayya Vanitha, the Mission and Project directors respectively.
Aiming to take a "billion dreams to the moon", India on Monday successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 on-board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 to explore the uncharted south pole of the celestial body by landing a rover.
The geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle lifted-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre into cloudy skies at 2:43 pm and successfully placed the 3,850-kg Chandrayaan-2 into the earth orbit 16 minutes and 14 seconds later.
Immediately after Chandrayaan-2's separation from the rocket, the solar array of the spacecraft automatically got deployed and the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru successfully took control of the spacecraft, the Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement later.
According to the statement, Chandrayaan-2, a three-module spacecraft comprising orbiter, lander and rover, will be subjected to a series of orbit manoeuvres using its onboard propulsion system to take it to the vicinity of Moon over the next weeks with the rover soft landing planned on September 7.
Amid all this, the successful launch of Chandrayaan-2 wouldn't have been possible without the contribution of two women — Ritu Karidhal (Mission Director) and Muthayya Vanitha (Project Director) — who along with their teams worked day-in and day-out for years to watch their dream finally coming true, though there's a lot more to discover since Chandrayaan-2 has just begun its journey.
Also Read: Watch: This footage of Chandrayaan 2 launching to the moon will give every Indian goosebumps
The July 22 launch has brought a huge relief for ISRO scientists after the July 15 launch which was called off just about an hour left after a technical glitch in the rocket was discovered.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
1. Meet Chandrayaan-2 Mission Director Ritu Karidhal
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The Rs 978-crore unmanned mission brought woman power to the fore as it was helmed by two woman scientists of the ISRO — Ritu Karidhal and Muthayya Vanitha, the Mission and Project directors respectively.
Chandrayaan-2 mission director Ritu Karidhal is one of the minds behind the successful launch of India's second moon mission.
Being an aerospace engineer, who has been working with ISRO for the past 22 years, Ritu Karidhal played a crucial role as Chandrayaan mission director which was finally launched on Monday (July 22), a week after its earlier scheduled launch was aborted following a technical snag.
Ritu Karidhal was also a part of ISRO's Mangalyaan (India's mission to Mars) and now she has served as mission director for Chandrayaan 2.
Ritu Karidhal is an alumnus of Lucknow University and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
Mission director is an important person who has the responsibility to plan the entire mission journey including the appropriate time, route, manuover landing until the spacecraft successfully achieve its mission.
2. Project Director Muthayya Vanitha is another brain behind Chandrayaan-2 mission
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Chandrayaan-2 Project Director Muthayya Vanitha is another ISRO scientist whose years of hard work and expertise gave a successful start to India's billion dream mission. She has been working with ISRO for the past 32 years.
M Vanitha is an electronics and communications engineer who had spent years in lab testing and in other experiments as a junior most engineer.
With years of hard work during which she did lab testing, designing and other projects, M Vanitha attained a managerial position.
Speaking about her work to an English portal, M Vanitha said that she can understand an individual's responsibility and contribution to the project and respect the role and input received from them.
The project director is the person who contemplates design and technology to be used for satellite. So a project director engineer skill plays a major role in the success of the project.
3. Watch: Launch of Chandrayaan 2 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh
4. Chandrayaan-2 will perform 15 crucial maneuvers in days to come: ISRO chief K Sivan
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According to ISRO chief K Sivan, the Chandrayaan-2 will perform 15 crucial maneuvers in the days to come and will be landing on the moon very slowly.
Chandrayaan-2 is an indigenous mission. It has been fully designed and developed by our scientists. The software for the Chandrayaan-2 mission has also been created by our scientists.
The Chandrayaan-2 was scheduled to be launched on July 15. However, less than an hour before the launch, the mission was aborted after a technical snag was detected.
Chandrayaan-2 will explore a region of Moon where no mission has ever set foot. The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover together referred to as "composite body." The probe's total mass is 3.8 ton and is expected to land on the Moon's South Polar Region on September 6 or 7 this year.
