Ritu K. Srivastava & Muthayya Vanitha: Looking Beyond The Skies

You may not always associate young girls with space related activities in most places. But Ritu Karidhal Srivastava has been steeped in it for over two decades, as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). She was part of the ISRO team that in 2013 successfully placed Mangalyaan, India’s Mars orbiter, in its orbit using the spacecraft PSLV-C25 in its very first attempt. The Mangalyaan mission, which roughly cost $74 million, achieved the distiction of being the most economical Mars mission ever. In comparison, NASA’s Maven Mars orbiter cost around $672 million and ESA’s Mars Express $329 million. 

A Deputy Operations Director at ISRO, Srivastava played a vital role in the development of Mangalyaan, and later also remote-controlled the satellite in space and responded to malfunctions. The success of this mission put her under the spotlight. Srivastava also led the Rs 978-crore unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 to explore the lunar South Pole as its Mission Director along with Muthayya Vanitha as the Project Director.

Expert engineers, Srivastava and Vanitha, who were key to the planning and execution of GSLV-MkIII-M1, came to be called the “Rocket Women of India” in the wake of the mission. This mission was also remarkable for the number of women in the team. Chandrayaan-2 had a successful launch although the Vikram Lander carrying the six-wheeled rover Pragyan lost contact with Earth during an attempt to land on the Moon. The lander is believed to have crashed on the moon.

In 2006, Vanitha won the Best Woman Scientist Award and in 2007, Srivastava was awarded  the Young Scientist Award by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. The team behind the Mangalyaan also received an award in 2015 for the Mars Orbiter Mission. 

From the very beginning, Srivastava had this abiding love and curiosity about the moon, stars, the space and beyond. Though she was born in a middle-class family of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, that fact never hindered her dream of becoming an aerospace engineer as they were supportive. Srivastava did her BSc in Physics from Lucknow University followed by a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. She joined ISRO in 1997. 

As Deputy Operations Director, Srivastava played a vital role in the development of Mangalyaan, and later also remote-controlled the satellite in space and responded to malfunctions