A crew of 21, including oceanographers, meteorologists, biologists, geologists, a geophysicist, a radio communication expert and several navy personnel, were drawn up from seven different institutions across the country. They were led by marine biologist Dr S Z Qasim.
John Lovering was a prominent scientist who made a huge contribution to human knowledge of meteorites, lunar rocks and geochemistry and became the adviser to the media coverage of the NASA lunar landing.