January 14, 2022: ISRO’s new chairman, Dr. S. Somanath, started his tenure as the Chairman and Space Secretary of India’s space agency on Friday.
The national space agency of India, ISRO recently appointed its new chairman. Sreedhara Panicker Somanath took over the new role on Friday, 14th January, from his predecessor Mr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan.
On Wednesday, 12th January, Dr. S. Somanath was appointed as the Secretary of the Department of Space and the Chairman of the Space Commission. His tenure will be for a total of 3 years from the date that he joins the post, with the option of an extension in tenure beyond attaining the age of retirement. Dr. Somanath has expertise in multiple areas, the most notable being launch vehicle design, and has specialised in launch vehicle systems engineering, structural design, structural dynamics, integration designs and procedures, mechanism design, and pyrotechnics.
Dr. Somanath was born in July 1993 in the Alappuzha district of Kerela. He attended school at St Augustine’s High School, Aroor, and completed his pre-university program from Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. Somanath graduated from TKM College of Engineering, Kerala University, with a Mechanical Engineering degree, and he received his Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
This is not the first time Somanath has taken over a job from K. Sivan. After graduation, Somanath joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Research Organisation (VSSC) and later on became the Associate Director of VSCC. In 2015, he became the director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Thiruvananthapuram. And at his previous job, he had taken over from K. Sivan as the director of VSCC in January 2018.
Dr. Somanath says that creating a good partnership with the private sector would prove to be very fruitful for India in the future, quite similar to how Space X and NASA have propelled the United States to the front of the space industry. “IN-SPACe is defining a new model, which is also designed to expand our space economy. The ₹16,000-crore space economy that we have in India today should grow to a ₹60,000-crore space economy,” he said in an interview.
Right now, ISRO is at a critical phase, as it is undergoing sweeping reforms and critical missions which are set to define the forward journey of India’s role in the Space Race. Dr. Somanath was clear about his priorities, saying that space sectors reforms, which involve partnering with the private sector and start-ups to ensure that they emerge as key partners in the development of the industry, are the most important to him.