THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: What began as a humble yet ambitious odyssey to the Moon under a Malayali has tasted success under another Malayali. When Vikram soft-landed on the lunar south pole, it also marked a special moment of pride for Kerala, which has made immense contributions to all of ISRO’s Moon missions, starting with Chandrayaan-1. Here’s a look at the Malayali link with the successful Moon mission.
It was under G Madhavan Nair, an alumnus of Thiruvananthapuram’s University College and College of Engineering, that the country undertook its first Moon mission in 2008. ISRO declared the mission over after a year when communication with the spacecraft was lost. In 2019, Chandrayaan-2 failed to achieve a soft touchdown on the lunar surface.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission’s success comes at a time when ISRO is headed by another Malayali — S Somanath, a native of Thuravoor and an alumnus of Ernakulam Maharaja’s College and Kollam TKM College of Engineering.
Incidentally, many recent ISRO chiefs emerged from the Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. This includes Madhavan and Somnath. “By heading the largest division of ISRO, VSSC directors naturally tend to get preference. Initially, most ISRO chairmen were not from VSSC. G Madhavan Nair was from VSSC, followed by K Radhakrishnan, though he had served in VSSC for only a short period. The next chairman, Kiran Kumar, was also not from VSSC.
His successors, K Sivan and S Somnath, were from VSSC. They also happen to be the senior-most scientists, too. VSSC being the leading division, the senior-most scientists will mostly be from there,” said a former ISRO scientist.
Usually launch vehicles for Moon missions come from VSSC, while the satellite for the mission is prepared at Bengaluru-based U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC). Chandrayaan-1 utilised the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11). Incidentally, URSC was then headed by another Malayali — T K Alex.
Playing a key role in the success of Chandrayaan-3, the mission’s propulsion module was configured by Thiruvananthapuram-based Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC). Moreover, six public-sector units and around 20 private companies in the state also contributed to its achievement.