 "Sheena Rani")
India conducted the first flight test of the indigenously produced Agni-5 missile, which is a part of ‘Mission Divyastra’. After a successful launch, India became part of a limited number of countries that possess such technology.
This weapon is equipped with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology that boosts its effectiveness in delivering multiple warheads to different targets with precision.
The country already has Agni 1 to 4 missiles with ranges from 700 km to 3,500 km. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated DRDO scientists for the successful test.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he is proud of DRDO scientists for Mission Divyastra which is the first indigenously developed Agni-5 missile with MIRV technology.
Many female scientists were involved in the mission including one female from DRDO. Sheena Rani was the program director for Agni-5 and Shankari Chandrasekaran was the project director.
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The missile has a three-stage solid fuel engine with a range exceeding 5000 km. The MIRVs can carry multiple warheads, and has greater destructive potential as compared to conventional single-warhead missiles. DRDO has developed variants of the Agni missile series, the Agni-1 comes with a range of 700 km, Agni-2 with 2000 km, Agni-3 with 3000 km, and Agni-4 with 4,000 km range.
Who is Sheena Rani?
The DRDO team was led by missile expert Sheena Rani, who was in charge of the Agni-5 missile test that comes with MIRV technology. She was the program director at DRDO's ASL facility in Hyderabad.
Rani has completed her education in computer science and holds a degree in electronics and communications engineering. After completing her education at Thiruvananthapuram's College of Engineering, she worked at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) for eight years.
She joined DRDO in 1999 as a lateral entry after the Pokhran-II nuclear test and she has been part of several Agni missiles programs since then.
Sheena has many achievements to her credit while working at the DRDO. She even won the "Scientist of the Year" award in 2016. She is said to have been inspired by the Missile Man of India and former president of India APJ Abdul Kalam.
Her husband, PSRS Sastry also contributed to missile projects and also stayed connected to the DRDO. Sastry was also the part of 2019 ISRO-launched Kautilya Satellite, which is designed to collect electronic intelligence.
