BENGALURU: A S Kiran Kumar (in picture) on Wednesday took charge as the Department of Space secretary as well as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Kumar assumes office with the hope to keep up ISRO’s good work following the space agency’s highly successful 2014, which saw its Mars Orbiter Mission capture the attention of the whole world. A statement from ISRO said, “Mr Kiran Kumar is a highly accomplished space scientist and engineer with a distinguished career spanning over four decades in ISRO in the satellite payload and applications domains.”
Kumar’s immediate challenges will include the upcoming Chandrayaan II and the completion of the GSLV MK III project, which will give ISRO the capacity to put heavy satellites (over 3 tonnes) into space.