Chandrayaan-3: Manipur scientist part of ISRO team

IMPHAL — While the people across the globe congratulated India on its remarkable achievement in the field of lunar exploration as Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed on Aug. 23, Manipur too took pride in the success, as a state resident were among the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s historic Moon Mission team.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh while sharing the photograph of ISRO scientist from Manipur, Dr. Raghu Ningthoujam, who was directly involved with the mission in his official X (formerly Twitter), on Wednesday wrote: “It’s heartening to share that a scientist from Manipur, Dr. Raghu Ningthoujam, from Thanga, Bishnupur district was part of the Chandrayaan moon landing mission. The setbacks we encounter from time to time cannot erase our 2000-year-old history. Regardless of the difficulty of the challenge, the people of Manipur will always bounce back stronger”.

Congratulating the ISRO team, Chairman M Asnikumar Singh of Loktak Development Authority in Manipur said that it is inspiring that Ningthoujam, a scientist at ISRO hails from a humble fishing family.

On Wednesday, India added to its hallmark achievements in global space research and exploration by becoming the first country to soft-land an unmanned space module (Chandrayaan-3) on the lunar South Pole.

Ningthoujiam is among the scientists of the ISRO who were behind the historic Chandrayaan-3 feat that has placed India among a few elite countries that have reached the Moon–Russia, USA and China.

“Jubilant Moments of the day from mission control centre during successful moon landing …#Chandrayaan-3…Proud moment for all of us,” Dr. Raghu, who has been with ISRO for nearly 18 years and has worked in all the Chandrayaan lunar missions wrote in a facebook post after the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3. Raghu worked as the project manager for Lander Craft and Rover in Chandrayaan-3.

Ningthoujiam, an alumni of IISc Bangalore, IIT-Guwahati and DM College of Science, Imphal, is the Deputy Director, Directorate of Technology development and Innovation ISRO.

Other young scientists Noel Mathiulungbo Chawag from Peren district in Nagaland and Y Bishal Singha from Silchar, Assam has also made the region proud.

It is said that five ISRO scientists including Nidhi Sharma and Chayan Dutta (both from Assam) associated with Chandrayaan-3 mission are from Northeast.

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