More than 100 scientists and engineers across ISRO have sought to resign or take voluntary retirement in recent months, including roughly 8...

More than 100 scientists and engineers across ISRO have sought to resign or take voluntary retirement in recent months, including roughly 80 from the UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru and about 20 from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram — both of which are central to the Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission. Rather than address why senior scientific staff are heading for the exits, the Department of Space issued a memo on July 14 directing centres to stop 'routinely' approving resignation or VRS requests from Group A scientific and technical personnel, especially those tied to Gaganyaan and other flagship missions. Every exit request must now be forwarded to the Department of Space in Delhi, along with the centre director's recommendation, before it can be approved. ISRO Chairman V Narayanan brushed off the scale of the departures as normal organisational churn, noting reassuringly that 'if someone is still going, someone else will take responsibility' — which is one way to staff a moon mission.