The mission is led by Dr. Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, one of the senior scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). She is known as India’s “Rocket Woman” for her work on the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan) and other space missions.
Karidhal has been born and brought up in Lucknow. She pursued her BSc in Physics from the Lucknow University. She then received her ME degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc). She joined ISRO in 1997. Karidhal joined ISRO in 1997 and was the Mission Director of Chandrayaan-2 and the Deputy Operations Director of Mangalyaan.
She has published over 20 papers in journals both national and international. Ritu Karidhal, is leading India’s ambitious lunar space mission, Chandrayaan 3. The mission was successfully launched from Sriharikota’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Friday. Moreover, she has also backed many awards to her name like ‘ISRO Young Scientist Award’ by former President APJ Abdul Kalam, ‘ISRO Team Award for MOM (2015)’, ‘ASI Team Award’, ‘Women Achievers in Aerospace, (2017)’ by Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries (SIATI).
For every girl who continues to be told ‘science is not for girls,’ Ritu Karidhal is a woman icon who has done it all, reaching the very top- balancing work and family with equal ease and efficiency. For her, the sky was not the limit, and she was known to be the ‘Rocket Woman of India.
