India's Moon Stars: When 'Nataraj' Gave Command For Chandrayaan Cosmic Dance

Meet 45-year-old M Srikanth, Mission Director of Chandrayaan-3 at the UR Rao Satellite Centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bengaluru. He was the leader of the team that made Chandrayaan-3 dance around the solar system on its long - over 40 days - journey to the Moon. Mr Srikanth did his MSc from Andhra University and then an MTech from Indore University. In this exclusive discussion with NDTV's Pallava Bagla, he says it would be good if India gets a more powerful rocket that can send satellites directly to the Moon and Mars, rather than using the "smart way" of using a gravity slingshot. Mr Srikanth embodies 'Nataraj', since it was Lord Shiv who in the Nataraj pose did the Tandava Nritya or the cosmic dance, and it was on Mr Srikanth's commands that both Chandrayaan-3 and the Sun probe Aditya L1 danced around in the solar system.