Inputs by Mohd. Omar Malik
Dr. Sreedhara Panicker Somanath has been appointed as the 10th Chairperson and Space Secretary of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) on Wednesday, 12 January 2022, approved the appointment of Dr. S. Somnath.
About Dr. Somnath
Before taking up the post of the chairman of ISRO, Dr. Somnath, was the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, for 4 years.
He has also served as the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram.
He takes over from Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan, who will be completing his extended term on Friday, January 14, 2022.
About Dr. K Sivan
Dr. Sivan was appointed as the ISRO chief in January 2018 and was given a one-year extension till January 14, 2022.
Dr. Sivan’s tenure has seen ISRO do some things for the first time:
A. The launch of a commercial company (NSIL) to do satellite launches. NSIL has been profitable from its very first year of operations.
B. India got its own navigation satellite (NavIC) and its own observation satellites.
C. The ambitious moon lander – Chandrayaan 2, was attempted. Only the lander failed. The orbiter continues to work and share useful information with the space community.
D. The ambitious Gaganyaan Project – India’s own project to put Indians in space, was initiated in 2019 under his leadership.
E. Student contact programs – Samvad with Students, Young Scientist Program, YUVIKA, were started by ISRO in 2019, under the leadership of Dr. K Sivan.
F. UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training by ISRO – January 2019. 30 participants from 17 countries attended the program.
Image: Dr. Somnath (left) takes over from Dr. K Sivan (Right). Image Credit: ISRO