Just a few hours left and the world, just not India, is waiting for the much-awaited landing of the Chandrayaan-3. For this day to arise the scientists of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have been planning and making the satellite for four years and many teams worked even as the country faced the Covid-19 pandemic.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath says almost 1,000 engineers and scientists would have worked to get the nearly ₹ 700 crore mission up and running.

Somanath is nothing less than a star. He is an aerospace engineer who helped in the design of the rocket the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 or the Bahuballi rocket that lifted Chandrayaan-3 into orbit. He is seen as an able leader whom the scientists and engineers at ISRO look up to. As head of the Indian space agency, it was his responsibility to make sure the Chandrayaan-3 satellite was fully tested before it was rocketed up.

Another major contributor of the Moon mission is Unnikrishnan Nair S who is the director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center. He heads India's key facility for research on rocketry. He is an aerospace engineer who is spearheading India's effort to send an astronaut into space.

Mr Veeramuthuvel, project director for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, has for the last four years lived a life that revolves around India's third lunar outing. He was also involved with the Chandrayaan-2 and Mangalyaan missions. His heritage knowledge of the lander Vikram, which failed in 2019, has led to the making of a much more robust Chandrayaan-3 mission.

Kalpana K kept the Chandrayaan-3 team working despite the hardships of the Covid pandemic. An engineer who has dedicated her life to making India's satellites, she was involved both in the Chandrayaan-2 and Mangalyaan missions.

The team also has dynamic women like M Vanitha. She was the project director for the Chandrayaan-2 mission. An electronics systems engineer, she became the first woman in India to lead a lunar mission. Her knowledge of Chandrayaan-2 has been ably used by the team that fabricated Chandrayaan-3.