The Indian Space Research Organisation has selected two women project directors Ritu Karidhal and Muthayya Vanitha for its mission Chandrayaan 2. It was also revealed in a recent ISRO press conference that 30 percent of the team of Chandrayaan 2 are women.

Space field mostly was dominated by men till Mangalyaan happened and the picture of women scientists including Karidhal, TK Anuradha and Nandini Harinath celebrating the success turned viral. Now Karidhal is the director and Vanitha is the project director for Chandrayaan 2. Chandrayaan 2 will be launched on July 15 at 2.51 am and this project worth Rs 1,000 crore involves the collaboration of 600 industries and 15 academia.
In Mangalyaan mission Karidhal was the deputy operations director. She has been given the nickname ‘Rocket Woman’ and comes from a middle class family in Lucknow.She had joined ISRO in 1997 and was given young scientist award in 2007,by then President APJ Abdul Kalam. On the other end Nature magazine had named Chandrayaan 2 project director M Vanitha as a top scientist to look out for in 2019 and had also received the Best Woman Scientist Award in 2006.