India's Ritu Karidhal aka 'Rocket Woman Of India' is leading theChandrayaan-3, India's third moon missionwill launch today at 2:35pm from Satish Dhawan space centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
Ritu Karidhal is a flagbearer for so many reasons and this Mother’s Day with the Good Mother Project, we will take you through her journey. From being a kid who loves the sky & space to being the deputy director of the Mars Orbiter Mission, Ritu Kharidhal has seen, learned, and achieved a lot in her life. She is a prominent scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and played a significant part in the execution of the Mars Orbiter Mission, the first mission to successfully land on Mars. She is also popularly known as the 'Rocket Woman of India' and currently she also the incharge of India's third moon mission Chandrayaan-3.
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Whenever we think of the ‘Mission Mangal’ movie or Mangalyaan we can't miss this woman. She was born in a middle-class family in Lucknow in 1975. She was a keen lover of stars, moon and skies. Collecting news articles, information and images related to ISRO and NASA was one of her hobbies.
Dr. Karidhal did her BSc and MSc in Physics from the University of Lucknow. She enrolled in IISc, Bangalore, to get a master's degree in aerospace engineering. For six months, she worked as a research scholar at Lucknow University.
Chasing & Fulfilling Her Childhood Dream
Dr Karidhal started working in ISRO in November 1997 as an engineer. Her initial job was in the Mission Analysis section with Dr Kesava Raju as her boss. Later she was appointed to supervise Chandrayaan 2 as the mission director and served as deputy operations director of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).
One of ISRO's greatest milestones, Mangalyaan, made India the fourth nation in the world to reach Mars. She has also led Chandrayaan-2, India's second moon exploration project after Chandrayaan-1.
Her husband Avinash, and her two children Aditya and Anisha are her biggest cheerleaders and always motivate and support her.
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Unstoppable Rocket Woman of India - Ritu Karidhal
Dr Karidhal is a role model for all girls and women who have successfully juggled career and family responsibilities equally. As the "Rocket Woman of India," she believed that nothing was impossible. She consistently attributes her accomplishment to the senior scientists who trusted her.
In February 2019, she gave a speech at TEDx Hyderabad where she spoke about how women should be confident about what they do. She said, ‘I don’t worry about what others might say. People can say anything, it does not matter to me. Even at home, you find relatives or friends commenting in a certain manner, but ultimately when they see the depth of the work or its relevance to society or view ISRO as a whole, they change their views.
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Big Achievements Of Ritu Karidhal
Dr Karidhal was also awarded the ISRO Young Scientist Award from APJ Abdul Kalam(former president of India) in 2007. Dr Karidhal was awarded an honorary doctorate by Lucknow University, her alma mater. She also received the Women Achievers in Aerospace from the Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries (SIATI) in 2017. She was also featured in the Forbes India Self-Made Women 2020 list.
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