Gen Z Girl Power From 108 Countries Builds ShaktiSat, Aiming For Nothing Less Than The Moon

In a remarkable display of global Gen Z girl power, schoolgirls representing 108 countries gathered in Greater Noida with a shared dream that reaches far beyond national borders, beyond Earth orbit and ultimately towards the Moon itself.

The initiative is called Mission ShaktiSat, an ambitious all-girls satellite programme led by Chennai based Space Kidz India, a pioneering organisation that has spent years introducing children, especially girls, to the world of space science and satellite technology.

For this generation of aspiring scientists, engineers and explorers, ShaktiSat is much more than a satellite. It is a statement that girls can be builders, designers and leaders of the future space age. Held with support from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (INSPACe) and Gautam Buddha University, the event brought together young participants from across continents, creating what is perhaps the world's largest gathering of budding aerospace girl scientists ever assembled in India.

At the centre of it all stood a satellite called ShaktiSat. "108 countries, 12,000 girls, mission to the moon is objective of ShaktiSat," said Dr Srimathi Kesan, Founder and CEO of Space Kidz India, widely known as the "Space Amma" of India.

The mission aims to involve 12,000 girls worldwide. Participants were exposed to space science, coding, electronics, payload systems, satellite structures and mission design. The long term vision is to create satellites that will first operate in Low Earth Orbit and eventually contribute to a lunar mission.

Speaking to NDTV, Dr Kesan explained that while senior engineers guide the process, the girls themselves have actively participated in major aspects of the programme."They have made the engineering structures which children can do.

So yes, what they have made is going space and then to the moon," she said. The project's roots go back to Space Kidz India's earlier satellite missions involving girls. Inspired by the response and by the challenges faced by women across the world, Dr Kesan decided to dramatically expand the concept.

"So I said, why not bring in everybody? These teams need to work together for the future. So bring everybody together, teach them basic space education until the launch," she said. The mission carries a powerful symbolic objective as well.

Space Kidz India has requested an October 11 launch, coinciding with the International Day of the Girl Child. "If we can have the launch on October 11, being the International Girl Child Day, that is going to send a loud message from India to the world," Dr Kesan said.

Adding prestige and inspiration to the programme was Astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, India's newest space explorer who recently flew to the International Space Station as part of the Axiom-4 mission in 2025. Shukla instantly connected with the young participants.

Asked whether these schoolgirls could become future aerospace scientists, he offered an emphatic endorsement. "I think absolutely anybody can make great aerospace scientists given the intent and the hard work that it requires," he said.

Drawing from his own experiences in astronaut training and human spaceflight, Shukla said space exploration fundamentally depends on collaboration. "The one thing that I realised is that space exploration is inherently very collaborative in nature.

The value of teamwork is what I realised during my mission" said Shukla. Looking at girls from over a hundred countries working on a common spacecraft, he saw a powerful reflection of that principle. "Girls from all these different countries are coming together to make a single payload and satellite that will be launched to space.

I think it cannot get better than this." He praised the organisers and participants alike. "My compliments to the entire team of Space Kidz India and all the people who are associated with this programme, to all the girls who are involved, more power to them." The enthusiasm among the students was impossible to miss.

Shreya Sandeep Muzumdar, representing the United Arab Emirates, described her involvement in technical aspects of the project. "Our role as students was basically assisting and helping and figuring out the technicalities of what goes into the structure of a satellite, the thermal part of it, the electronics part of it, at least the coding part of it."