Updated By: LatestGKGS Desk
VR Lalithambika Profile, Education, Career in Space Research, Achievements, Awards
ISRO Human Space Flight Project Gaganyaan Head Dr.VR Lalithambika Profile, Career in ISRO, Space Research, Achievements, Awards
The ISRO Human Space Flight Project will be headed by a woman, Dr. VR Lalithambika, currently the Deputy Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSCC).
Dr. VR Lalithambika is a specialist of Advanced Launcher Technologies. She had joined VSCC in 1988 and has been in charge of control, guidance, and simulation research work. In layman terms, it is her job to make rockets fly.
Dr. Lalithambika heads the team that optimizes fuel systems, autopilot systems, designs the rocket computers and rocket hardware.
One of the biggest challenges of the space missions has been the design and the development of the ideal launch vehicle. India’s PSLV (Polar Satelite Launch Vehicle) was the one that carried Chandrayan and Mangalyan into space.
But sending astronauts required the rocket to carry a much heavier payload and that has pushed ISRO into developing the GSLV Mk III. ISRO successfully tested the GSLV Mk III in 2014 in an experimental flight.
It was later renamed as LVM-3 and ISRO successfully sent the GSAT-19 satellite into space with it in June 2017. It is Dr. VR Lalithambika whose efforts have been crucial in the development of LVM-3.
Dr. Lalithambika is the recipient of many awards. According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, she had bagged the Space Gold Medal, 2001, ISRO individual merit award, and ISRO performance excellence award in 2013. Her research papers on propulsion technologies and control systems are frequently hailed by researchers in the field.
