After a week's delay, and recovering from a small technical snag, ISRO's Chandrayaan 2 successfully took off from Shriharikota and is on its way to the moon.
All credit should go to Muthayya Vanitha & Ritu Karidhal, ISRO's two women directors in charge of the mission, even though their work isn't over until Chandrayaan 2 lands on moon in September later this year.
Muthayya Vanitha (L) & Ritu Karidhal (R)
ISRO has had women project leads for the launch of communication satellites and other smaller payloads, but never for a huge, big-budget launch like Mangalyaan or Chandrayaan 1.
All of that changed with Chandrayaan 2 as it rode the GSLV MKIII and broke away its earthy shackles, where ISRO and India created history by having Muthayya Vanitha (electronics system engineer) & Ritu Karidhal (ISRO scientist) as two distinguished women leading the prestigious moon mission -- something that has never happened before.
Let's get to know more about the amazing Rocket Women of ISRO's Chandrayaan 2 mission, and salute their historic achievement!
Moon
In her 40s, Muthayya Vanitha has had a distinguished career within ISRO, and this latest Chandrayaan 2 mission is just another feather in her cap. Vanitha has become the first ever woman project director at ISRO, breaking barriers like never before.?
Reluctant to take the responsibility of project director of Chandrayaan 2 at first, Muthayya Vanitha finally came around after immense persuasion by M Annadurai -- the project director of Chandrayaan 1 -- who knew Vanitha was more than capable of doing a splendid job.
An electronics system engineer of great repute within ISRO, Muthayya Vanitha has also been responsible for handling data operations for the country's remote sensing satellites, and she's highly regarded for her problem solving skills -- which she will definitely need, since she's tasked with the unenviable task of handling Chandrayaan 2 from launch till successful landing on moon's surface in September.
ISRO
In the past, Muthayya Vanitha has won Best Woman Scientist Award of the Astronautical Society of India in 2006, and also played a key role in the launch and success of Mangalyaan in November 2013.
Ritu Karidhal is fondly regarded as the "Rocket Woman" of India, as she was the deputy operations director for Mangalyaan in 2013-2014.
She's been there and done that, and now holds the mantle of Chandrayaan 2's mission director. She is working closely with Muthayya Vanitha throughout the Chandrayaan 2 mission, taking a prominent role once the spacecraft takes off from earth.
ISRO
It was her responsibility to design Chandrayaan 2's onward autonomy system -- which gives the spacecraft the ability to navigate its trajectory and respond to satellite with a relative degree of independence.
Ritu Karidhal has a Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering from IISC, Bengaluru, and has previously received the ISRO Team Award for Mars Orbiter Mission and also the ISRO Young Scientist Award from former President APJ Abdul Kalam in 2007.