THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: S Somanath is the new director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thumba, the lead centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) responsible for launch vehicles. Somanath, who hails from Cherthala, succeeds K Sivan who was named ISRO chairman. A former associate director (projects) of VSSC, Somanath was serving as director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC). It was under his leadership as project director of the eosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III that the first experimental flight of the hefty rocket was successfully conducted in December 2014. An alumnus of TKM College of Engineering, Kollam and IISc Bangalore, Somanath joined ISRO in 1985.