Mahima Rajput, a 14-year-old Class 10 student from raipur, chhattisgarh, has been selected for Mission ShakthiSAT, an international all-women satellite mission led by Chennai-based Space Kidz India. The programme trains over 12,000 girls globally in satellite technology, aiming to launch an all-girl-built satellite and ultimately a lunar payload.

Somewhere in raipur, a teenager who was doing her Class 10 board-exam revision a few months ago is now learning how to build a satellite. That sentence alone tells you something extraordinary is happening in India's space ecosystem — and it has almost nothing to do with ISRO's headline rockets.

mahima Rajput, 14, has been selected for Mission ShakthiSAT, an international space programme that sounds like science fiction until you look at the organisation behind it. Her selection was publicly reported by ANI with apparent family cooperation, and her family has spoken to media about the achievement. Space Kidz india, the Chennai-based non-profit founded by Dr Srimathy Kesan, has already put student-built satellites into orbit — including KalamSAT, which in 2017 became the world's lightest satellite, launched aboard a nasa sounding rocket. ShakthiSAT is their most audacious project yet: an all-women satellite venture that, according to the organisation, aims not just for low-Earth orbit but eventually for the Moon.

What Exactly Is ShakthiSAT?

Mission ShakthiSAT is built on a deceptively simple idea: take girls aged roughly 12 to 22 from across the world, teach them actual satellite engineering — not a watered-down workshop but the full pipeline from concept design through fabrication to launch operations — and let them build a real satellite. According to Space Kidz india, the programme currently trains over 12,000 girls globally, spanning india, Africa and other regions, using a combination of in-person bootcamps and wallet PLATFORM' target='_blank' title='digital-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>digital learning platforms.

The mission's name fuses \"Shakthi\" — the sanskrit word for power, and a reference to the divine feminine — with \"SAT,\" the workaday abbreviation for satellite. It is, in other words, goddess engineering. According to Space Kidz India's mission materials, each participant selected for the core mission team is called a \"Devi,\" reinforcing the cultural framing that this is not charity but consecration of talent.

From raipur to Orbit: Mahima's Selection

According to ANI, mahima Rajput is a student at a school in raipur, chhattisgarh, and was selected through a competitive process that evaluates aptitude in science and mathematics alongside a demonstrated passion for space technology. Her selection was publicly announced and her family participated in media coverage of the achievement. She is not the only young indian in the programme — Riya Panwar of army Public school, Meerut, has also been selected, a fact celebrated by the school's official institutional account as a \"proud moment.\"

What distinguishes these selections from the usual \"young achiever\" stories is the pipeline they feed into. These are not ceremonial scholarships or photo-op delegations. The girls join a working engineering cohort that, if Space Kidz India's track record is any guide, will actually put hardware into space.

The Grassroots Pipeline No One Is Talking About

India's space story in 2026 is usually told through two lenses: ISRO's institutional might and the venture-funded private-launch startups. What falls between the cracks is what might matter most in the long run — the grassroots layer where students from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, often girls from families with no prior connection to aerospace, are being given genuine technical agency.

Space Kidz india has been building this layer for over a decade. Their journey from KalamSAT to ShakthiSAT, as the organisation documents, is a deliberate escalation: first prove students can build a satellite, then prove girls specifically can lead an entire mission, then scale that model across continents.

The numbers are striking. According to Space Kidz India's own reporting, the programme has engaged over 12,000 girls across multiple countries — a figure that, if even roughly accurate, would position it as one of the largest hands-on STEM-for-girls initiatives in the aerospace sector worldwide. By comparison, major space-agency outreach programmes such as those run by nasa and ESA, while influential, tend to operate with smaller direct-participant cohorts — though precise like-for-like figures are difficult to establish given differences in programme structure and reporting.

Why This Matters Beyond the Feel-Good Story

India's representation of women in its space workforce remains a persistent concern. A 2023 report by the indian National Science Academy (INSA) documented that women constitute roughly 15 to 20 per cent of the scientific workforce across India's major research institutions, a gap that is mirrored in the aerospace sector. The pipeline problem starts early: data from the National Achievement survey (NAS) conducted by the Ministry of education has consistently shown that gender gaps in science performance widen in higher grades, driven less by differences in ability than by disparities in access, encouragement and institutional support, according to analyses published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

What ShakthiSAT does — perhaps more effectively than any policy paper — is hack that assumption at the root. When a 14-year-old from raipur can tell her classmates she is literally building a satellite, the Overton window of what girls from chhattisgarh can aspire to shifts overnight. That is not sentimentality. That is infrastructure — the cultural kind, which is often harder to build than the engineering kind.

The Moon, Eventually

The long-term ambition of ShakthiSAT, as stated by Space Kidz india, is a lunar payload — a girl-built instrument on the Moon. Whether that timeline is realistic or aspirational, the mere fact that school-age participants are being trained with that goal in mind changes the quality of their education. You design differently when the destination is the Moon.

For now, the mission continues to select its \"Devis\" — one teenager at a time, one small city at a time, building the bench that India's space sector will draw from a decade hence. mahima Rajput may or may not become an astronaut. But the ecosystem that selected her is already doing something no government programme has managed at this scale: making space science feel like it belongs to girls from everywhere, not just girls from everywhere privileged.

Key Takeaways

• Mahima Rajput, a 14-year-old Class 10 student from raipur, has been selected for Mission ShakthiSAT, an international all-women satellite mission, according to ANI. Her family participated in public media coverage of the selection.
• ShakthiSAT is run by Chennai-based Space Kidz india, the organisation behind KalamSAT — the world's lightest satellite launched via a nasa sounding rocket in 2017.
• The programme trains over 12,000 girls globally in hands-on satellite engineering, according to Space Kidz India.
• The mission's long-term goal is a girl-built lunar payload, making it one of the most ambitious youth STEM initiatives in aerospace worldwide.
• Other selections include Riya Panwar of army Public school Meerut, highlighting the programme's reach into Tier-2 cities across India.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is ShakthiSAT?

ShakthiSAT is an international all-women satellite mission run by Space Kidz india, a Chennai-based organisation. It trains girls globally in satellite design, fabrication and launch operations, with the long-term goal of placing a girl-built payload on the Moon.

Which country has launched ShakthiSAT?

ShakthiSAT is an indian mission, headquartered at Space Kidz india in Chennai. The organisation has previously launched student-built satellites including KalamSAT via NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in the United States.

Who founded Space Kidz India?

Space Kidz india was founded by Dr Srimathy Kesan, who has led the organisation from its early student satellite projects through to the global ShakthiSAT mission.

Is there a space programme in india for students?

Yes. Beyond ISRO's institutional programmes, organisations like Space Kidz india run hands-on missions such as ShakthiSAT that allow school-age students — particularly girls — to participate in real satellite engineering and launch operations.

How many girls are part of Mission ShakthiSAT?

According to Space Kidz india, the programme trains over 12,000 girls globally across india, Africa and other regions in satellite technology and space science.