‘If I can, anyone can’: From a government school in Tamil Nadu to the moon, Chandrayaan 3 project director’s rise and rise

It was the moment that the young scientist, P Veeramuthuvel, now 46, was recognised in ISRO for his leadership qualities.

The work that Veeramuthuvel did with a group of 10-15 young scientists, who were all below the age of 40, in realising two Indian nano satellites within just nine months for the PSLV C37 launch was a key step in his emergence as the project director for the Chandrayaan 3 moon mission – soon after the Chandrayaan 2 landing failed in 2019.

A product of the government school system in Tamil Nadu, Veeramuthuvel, the son of a railway employee, has in his own words used the sheer dint of hard work, concentration and discipline to rise above the ordinary.

“I am a simple person. If I can reach such heights of academic and work excellence, it is possible for anyone to rise above the ordinary. Everybody has got opportunities and it all depends on how you utilise opportunities,” Veeramuthuvel told students in Tamil Nadu in a video recorded ahead of the success of the Chandrayaan 3 landing mission.

“I was born and brought up in Villupuram. I did my schooling at the Villupuram Government High School. I studied in a government school till class 10. In school, I was an average student. When I completed school, I did not have any idea of where I should study and what I should study. Nobody in my family had an educational background,” he said.

Veeramuthuvel’s interest in engineering was kindled when he joined a diploma course in mechanical engineering — an option he chose because of the lack of any clearly defined career path or strategy.

“While studying this course, I developed a liking for engineering and I was able to obtain 90 percent. As a result, I got an engineering seat on merit in the Shri Sai Ram Engineering college in Chennai for a Bachelor of Engineering course,” he said in the video.

“I would finish first or second in every semester during my engineering course. The reason was not that I was studying all the time, but when I was engaged with my studies, I would try to study with 100 percent focus and make an effort to understand everything that I studied. This is the reason I was able to secure good marks,” he said.

His performance at the graduate level in engineering earned him an admission to REC Trichy for a Masters in Engineering program, which he finished with a 9.17 CGPA, landing a campus placement at Lakshmi Machine Works in Tamil Nadu.

“While working, I developed a deep interest in aerospace engineering and got an opportunity to work at the rotary wing research and development division of the helicopter division of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bengaluru. I got to work as a design engineer,” he said.

When an opening came up at the ISRO Satellite Centre for a project engineer in Bengaluru, Veeramuthuvel grabbed it. He worked initially as a project engineer, and then a project manager on multiple remote sensing and scientific satellites. He was associated with the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013.

While at ISRO, he joined a PhD program at IIT Madras to complete a research project on the topic of “Vibration Suppression of Electronic Package in Satellites”.

“I was chosen to lead ISRO’s first nano satellite team. We launched three nano satellites. I worked as the associate project director on the Chandrayaan 2 mission,” he told students.

According to senior retired scientists from ISRO, it was Veeramuthuvel’s work on the first Indian nano satellite mission in 2016-17 that earned him recognition as a leader.

“Veeramuthuvel was with Chandrayaan 2 right from the beginning but unfortunately it was getting delayed, and in between he was allotted to another project where he made a mark. This was working on an Indian nano satellite project (INS). He was like a project director in a team of young scientists where all were below the age of 40,” said former ISRO scientist and Satellite Centre director M Annadurai, who was himself a product of a government engineering college in Coimbatore.

“There were 15-20 (scientists) and they came up with a bus configuration for the project, which was launched around 2017. This was the time we saw his leadership qualities and that helped him emerge as the project director after the failure of Chandrayaan 2,” Annadurai said.

Veeramuthuvel’s qualities as a team man were evident after the successful launch of the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft on board the LVM3 rocket from Sriharikota on July 14. When called on stage to speak after the launch, he did not forget to mention his entire team and especially his associate project director K Kalpana, who was then called up by ISRO chairman S Somnath to share the limelight in an emotional moment.

“It is a great moment of happiness and on behalf of the team I would like to say that it gives immense satisfaction to achieve this goal as the project director,” Veeramuthuvel said after successful landing of the Chandrayaan 3 lander on the surface of the moon at 6.03 pm on August 23.

In his address to students ahead of the mission the Chandrayaan 3, he had said that “self discipline, 100 percent involvement without any expectations, and being hardworking” were his unique qualities. “Hard work will not go unrewarded,” he said.