In a first time in its history, the Indian Space Research Organisation has appointed two women project directors Ritu Karidhal and Muthayya Vanitha for its next big mission Chandrayaan 2. In a recently held ISRO press conference it was announced that 30 percent of the team Chandrayaan 2 is constituted by women.
It was during Mangalyaan that a photo of women scientists like Karidhal, TK Anuradha and Nandini Harinath celebrating success became trending showing women are there in the mostly male dominated space science field too. Karidhal is appointed the director while Vanitha is the project director for Chandrayaan 2.
Chandrayaan 2 is planned to be launched on July 15, 2.51 am and is a thousand crores project involving six hundred industries and several esteemed academia. In Mangalyaan Karidhal was deputy operations director and was fondly referred as Rocket Woman and she joined ISRO in 1997 and received young scientist award in 2007 from President APJ Abdul Kalam. Vanitha was selected by Nature magazine as the top scientist to look out this year and in 2006 received Best Woman Scientist Award.
