Meet Dr. Srimathy Kesan, Mission Director For Maldives’ First Space Program

Institute for Global Success (IGS) was formed in order to develop a new set of Maldivian leaders, engineers and scientists who are committed to reaching their full potential and eventually, towards world-class success. In line with their mission, back in November, the Institute launched the first-ever space program in Maldives in partnership with KFS Space Foundation of the UK.

Today, it was announced that IGS has appointed the Indian expert, Dr. Srimathy Kesan, as the mission director for the first space mission. She has led many successful space missions in the past whereas she will play a significant role in nurturing local students from planning to the successful implementation of a space mission. The world’s smallest satellite was launched through NASA in 2017 under Dr. Srimathy’s leadership, and subsequent missions include KalamSat V2, the world’s lightest student satellite launched in 2019 and Satish Dhawan Satellite, a 3U Satellite launched through ISRO last month. In addition to this, she had also led a record number of balloon sat missions in India.

Prior to this, Dr. Kayyali Mohamed, the Chairman and CEO of the KFS Space Foundation of the UK was appointed as the mission advisor for the same space mission.

Under this program, 12 local students will complete the world's first Nano-Satellite Engineering Professional certification with grant aid from KSF while the training programs will be conducted by an expert team from the United States.