As over 100 Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists and technical personnel, including those associated with the Gaganyaan mission, having quit the space agency, the Department of Space (DoS) has ordered that requests for voluntary retirement cannot be accepted as a “matter of routine”.An official memorandum, issued on July 14, said, “Of late, it has been noticed that there has been a spate of requests for voluntary retirement and resignations from Group A scientific and technical personnel of ISRO, including those associated with the prestigious Gaganyaan and other important missions and projects, severely impacting the implementation of projects of national importance.”The memorandum, addressed to the directors of ISRO centres, including the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), UR Rao Satellite Centre, ISRO Telemetry and the National Remote Sensing Centre, stated that voluntary retirement and resignation requests from scientific and technical personnel associated with the Gaganyaan and other important missions and projects should not be accepted as a matter of routine.“Accordingly, the centre directors and heads of units are advised not to accept any request for voluntary retirement or resignation from scientific and technical personnel of Group A associated with the Gaganyaan or other important missions and projects till the realisation of the projects. Any such requests received from scientific and technical personnel, even of and below the rank of scientist/engineer-SG, may be sent to the department with clear recommendations of the directors of centres and heads of units for a final decision,” said the memorandum, signed by SR Rajashekar, Joint Secretary (Personnel), DoS. A senior scientist, Victor Joseph T, who was serving as the project director of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk III project at the VSSC, resigned in February. Aditya Rallapalli, a key Chandrayaan-3 scientist, had also quit.In February, the DoS told Parliament that in the science and technology category, there was a vacancy of 1,636 personnel and the recruitment process was in progress to hire 1,261 personnel.Union minister Jitendra Singh downplayed suggestions of a manpower crisis in ISRO. “As many go, many will come. The project should not suffer. The team is large; nobody is going away; they come and go. The memo was issued so that decisions can be taken at a much more mature level. For instance, former ISRO chief S Somanath worked closely on Gaganyaan. Now, he’s not there. Does that mean that work on Gaganyaan stops,” he said.