Prominent rocket scientist S Somanath is the new chairperson of the Indian Space Research Organisation, according to an order issued by the Centre on Wednesday. He will also hold the post of the secretary of the Department of Space and chairman of the Space Commission.
Somanath will succeed K Sivan, who has served as the chief of ISRO since 2018. Sivan’s extended tenure will end on January 14.
Here are six points on the space agency’s new chief:
Somanath completed his B. Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from TKM college of engineering, Kollam. He obtained a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Somanath specialised in dynamics and control.
He joined the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in 1985 and was associated with the (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) project in its early phase. He was responsible for the system integration design, sub-assembly realisation and testing the stages of PSLV during its development. He was a team leader for the first and second developmental flights of PSLV.
Later on, Somanath became the project manager, Vehicle Engineering and Launch Services Management of PSLV Project. He held responsibility for the mechanisms and pyro-technique systems of the vehicle.
Somanath co-ordinated the launches of mini satellites in PSLV-C2 and C3 missions in his capacity as the as satellite launch service manager.
He presently serves as the director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Kerala.
Somanath has won awards and honours like the Space Gold Medal from Astronautical Society of India and the Performance Excellence award from ISRO.
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