Senior scientist S Somnath appointed as ISRO chairman, to succeed K Sivan

By Team Newsable | First Published Jan 12, 2022, 8:54 PM IST

Somanath, the current Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), will take over for K Sivan, who will finish his extended stint on Friday.

According to a Personnel Ministry directive released on Wednesday, eminent rocket scientist S Somanath has been named head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Space Secretary. Somanath, the current Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), will take over for K Sivan, who will finish his extended stint on Friday. Sivan was named ISRO Director, Secretary of the Department of Space, and Chairman of the Space Commission in January 2018. He received a one-year extension to January 14, 2022, in December 2020.

According to the order, Somanath's appointment as Space Secretary and Chairman of the Space Commission is for a combined tenure of three years from starting the office, inclusive of an extension in tenure beyond the age of superannuation in the public interest. The ISRO chairman, Space Secretary, and Space Commission chief are generally held by the same individual.

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Somanath, the primary space organization's tenth chairman, assumed the VSSC on January 22, 2018, following a two-and-a-half-year service as the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiamala, Thiruvananathapuram. According to his official biodata, he formerly worked as the Associate Director (Projects) at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and as the Project Director of the GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle.

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According to the report, the first trial flight of the LVM3-X/CARE mission was completed successfully on December 18, 2014. Somanath received his B Tech in Mechanical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering in Kollam and his Masters in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, focusing on structures, dynamics, and control. He won a gold medal. According to his official biodata, he is an expert in the field of launch vehicle system engineering.

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