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Saree worn by Indian scientist on display in U.S. museum
The saree was worn by Nandini Harinath during India’s Mars Orbiter Mission
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Malvika Choudhary - Sat, 16, May 2026
- 14:14 EDT
- 120
Saree at display in the museum / Instagram/ @smithsonian
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., has put on display a saree worn by Indian scientist Nandini Harinath.
Harinath wore the red-and-blue saree on Nov. 30, 2013, when the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft successfully performed its trans-Mars injection maneuver and left Earth’s orbit for its nearly 300-day journey to Mars.
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The saree is part of the museum’s “Futures in Space” gallery, an exhibit that explores questions surrounding the future of space exploration, including who gets to go to space and why humans pursue such missions.worn by Harinath In a recent Instagram post, the Smithsonian Institution described Harinath as one of India’s “Rocket Women.”
“One of India’s ‘Rocket Women,’ Nandini Harinath helped her country reach Mars,” the museum wrote. “She wore this saree to work the day the Indian Space Research Organization’s spacecraft successfully left Earth’s orbit and began its 300-day journey to Mars.”
The museum said Harinath, who served as deputy operations director for the mission, played an integral role in mission planning and spacecraft operations.
It added that the spacecraft, initially expected to operate for six to 10 months, remained in orbit around Mars for nearly eight years while documenting the planet’s surface and atmosphere.
According to the museum’s collection archive, the saree was worn inside mission control during the spacecraft’s successful trans-Mars injection maneuver, described as the first major operation after the launch of Mangalyaan.
India launched the Mars Orbiter Mission, also known as Mangalyaan, on Nov. 5, 2013. The spacecraft entered Martian orbit on Sept. 24, 2014, making India the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit and the first country to do so on its maiden attempt.
The Smithsonian noted that the sarees worn by women scientists involved in the mission became symbols of “their national identity and India’s success in space.”
Harinath, a senior scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, has worked on more than 14 ISRO missions over a career spanning two decades.
She served as the deputy operations director and mission designer for Mangalyaan, a mission widely regarded as a milestone for India’s space program for demonstrating low-cost interplanetary mission capability using indigenous technology.
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