NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover successfully landed on the Red Planet on Friday (February 19). It is interesting to note that Indian-American Swati Mohan had virtually spearheaded the successful landing of Perseverance.
Swati Mohan was the first to confirm that the rover had successfully landed on the Martian surface. "Touchdown confirmed," said operations lead Dr Swati at around 3:55 PM Eastern Time (2055 GMT), as mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena celebrated the feat.
NASA released a video of this moment which shows Dr Swati wearing a small bindi on her forehead. This soon caught the eye of Desi Twitterati who absolutely loved the Doctor’s look.
Swati Mohan came to America as a child. She spent most of her childhood in the Northern Virginia-Washington DC metro area. She earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Cornell University and completed her MS and PhD from MIT in Aeronautics/Astronautics. Dr Swati is the Mars 2020 Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GN&C) Operations Lead.
