BENGALURU: S Somanath who is currently serving as the Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), has taken over as the 11th Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
He was elevated to the post of the Secretary, Department of Space, and Chairman, Space Commission, for a combined tenure of three years from the date of joining the post, in an appointment order issued on Wednesday by Secretary Appointments Committee of the Cabinet & Establishment Officer D Umashakar.
Somnath had taken over the role of the director of VSSC in January 2018 when the outgoing ISRO chairman K Sivan had assumed chairmanship of the space organisation.
The GSLV Mk-III man was the first project director of the launch vehicle which was chosen to launch the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft.
Somnath has also served as the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiamala, and Associate Director (Projects) of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
During his tenure as LPSC director, C-25 was realised which completed the development of MkIII. As per ISRO, Somanath led the LPSC team to complete the development and qualification of CE20 cryogenic engine and the C25 stage, which was successfully flown in GSLV MkIII-D1 flight.
Under his leadership, the first experimental flight of GSLV MkIII with CARE module (without Cryo)LVM3-X or the CARE mission was successful in December 2014.
He is a member of the technical committee for Space Transportation and also International Project/Program Management Committee of International Astronautical Federation (IAF).
Among his achievements are the development of throttleable engines for lander craft of Chanradrayaan-2 and first time successful flight of electric propulsion system in GSAT-9.
Somanath is an alumnus of TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, where he completed his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, where he completed his Masters in Aerospace Engineering.