Meet India's Moon Stars: 'Nari Shakti' Connection To Chandrayaan-3
Meet 47-year-old soft-spoken K Kalpana, Associate Project Director of Chandrayaan-3 at the UR Rao Satellite Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru. She "nari shakti" for India and worked on both Chandrayaan-2 and -3 Moon missions. She says for the past four years, Team Chandrayaan-3 only "breathed in and breathed out Chandrayaan". She holds a BTech degree from Madras University. Calling lander Vikram's soft-landing on the lunar surface the "happiest moment" of her life, she says there is no gender bias at ISRO. "Only talent matters at Team ISRO," says Ms Kalpana. She embodies 'Shakti' as the female power that propelled Team ISRO to success, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also referred to as 'Shiv and Shakti'. Space missions are challenging and only cohesive teams can taste success. In this exclusive discussion with NDTV's Pallava Bagla, Ms Kalpana says seeing India's flag on the lunar surface was a very satisfying moment.
