Meet the key scientists behind moon mission

S Somanath, Isro Chairman

The Isro chairman has become a household name after he assumed the leadership of the space agency in January last year. Since then, Somanath has become the face of India’s third lunar mission.

P Veeramuthuvel

Veeramuthuvel, who hails from a humble family in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram, took charge as the Project Director of Chandrayaan-3 in 2019. He has been part of various projects including a number of on remote sensing satellites, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission ‘Mangalyaan’ and, more recently, Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3.

S Unnikrishnan Nair

Nair is the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Kerala. VSSC was responsible for developing the Launch Vehicle Mark-III. As the head of VSSC, Nair and his team oversee various aspects of the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

M Sankaran

Since 2021, Sankaran has been director at U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), which is responsible for developing satellites that meet India’s diverse needs such as communication, navigation, remote sensing, weather forecasting, and planetary exploration.

A Rajarajan

As director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Rajarajan’s team works on the Launch Complex Infrastructure to meet ISRO’s increased demand for launches.