How a Girl Inspired by the Moon Landing Became ISRO's First Woman Satellite Project Director

In 2011, Indian space scientist T K Anuradha was serving as Project Director for the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) GSAT-12 mission when she helped develop and implement a new way of controlling a geosynchronous satellite as it was manoeuvred into its final orbit — a technique that made the mission successful and has continued to be used in satellite operations since.

Anuradha, born in 1960, grew up between Shivamogga and Bengaluru with three sisters; her father, a Sanskrit professor, placed a strong emphasis on education. In 1969, she watched as Apollo 11 carried humans to the Moon, and the mission made space feel like a field she could one day be part of. She went on to study Electronics and Communication Engineering at University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in Bengaluru, emerging as a university topper, and joined ISRO three years later.

Anuradha began her ISRO career in 1982, working on satellite testing, interfaces and systems that assessed how spacecraft performed in different mission environments. That experience proved valuable for GSAT-12: after the communication satellite launched aboard the PSLV-C17 rocket in July 2011, it was placed in a highly elliptical orbit and had to be carefully moved, through a series of precisely timed manoeuvres, to its intended geostationary position about 36,000 kilometres above the equator. The first manoeuvre was the most difficult, since the satellite moves fastest when closest to Earth, leaving engineers only a narrow window to fire its motors while also conserving fuel — the problem Anuradha's new control approach helped solve.

At ISRO's Master Control Facility in Hassan, Karnataka, Anuradha led an all-women team that monitored GSAT-12's crucial manoeuvres, alongside Mission Director Pramodha Hegde and Operations Director K S Anuradha. When the satellite's antenna deployed successfully, the control room erupted in applause; Anuradha described the feeling of seeing a satellite she had worked on take its first steps as being "like delivering a baby."

Anuradha went on to become the first woman at ISRO to serve as a satellite Project Director. Over a 38-year career, she worked on several communication, remote sensing and navigation programmes, including GSAT-10 and other GSAT missions.