Check out everything that you need to know about Dr. Ritu Karidhal Srivastava:
“India is on the Moon!”
These lines gave goosebumps to everyone yesterday when India’s Chandrayaan-3 made a successful soft landing on the Moon’s South Pole. India scripted history by being the first country to do it. As we celebrate this precious moment, a lesser-known fact is that a woman is behind it all. Yes. Dr Ritu Karidhal Srivastava, often referred to as the “Rocket Woman of India,” played a significant role in the team that launched India’s historic voyage to the moon.
Dr Karidhal is a senior scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Mission Director of Chandrayaan-2, and the Deputy Operations Director of Mangalyaan, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).
Other team includes S Somanath, ISRO Chairman, P Veeramuthuvel, Chandrayaan-3 Project Director, S Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Mohana Kumar, Mission Director, M Sankaran, Director of U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), and A Rajarajan, Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) chief.
Dr. Ritu also known as Rocket Woman of India for her leadership and immense contribution to ISRO’s major projects, Karidhal is from Lucknow, India. Talking about her education she pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from Lucknow University. Later, she received her ME in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). In 1997, she joined ISRO.
Karidhal has many awards to her name, such as ‘ISRO Young Scientist Award’ by former President APJ Abdul Kalam, ‘ISRO Team Award for MOM (2015)’, ‘ASI Team Award’, and ‘Women Achievers in Aerospace, (2017)’ by the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries (SIATI).
According to the World Economic Forum, Karidhal has always been fascinated by space and has wanted to do something different. She used to collect paper cuttings of ISRO and NASA news reports.
She has published more than 20 papers both in International and National Publications.
