Meet V Narayanan, who is set to succeed S Somanath as ISRO chief

V Narayanan will succeed S Somanath as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Union government announced on Tuesday. V Narayanan will also take charge as the secretary of the department of space.

According to the order from the appointments committee of the Cabinet, V Narayanan will assume office on January 14, succeeding the current ISRO chief, S Somanath.

V Narayanan will serve in these roles for the next two years or until further notice, news agency ANI reported, citing the appointment order.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Shri V. Narayanan, Director. Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Valiamala as Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission for a period of two years with effect from 14.01.2025, or until further orders, whichever is earlier,” the order stated.

Who is V Narayanan, new ISRO chairman?

• V Narayanan is a distinguished scientist with nearly four decades of experience in rocket and spacecraft propulsion.
• He is a Rocket and SpaceCraft Propulsion expert and joined the ISRO in 1984 and functioned in various capacities before becoming director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC).
• During the initial phase, he worked in the Solid Propulsion area of Sounding Rockets and Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) and Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).
• V Narayanan further contributed to the process planning, process control and realisation of Ablative nozzle systems, composite motor cases and composite Igniter cases.
• Currently, Narayanan is the director of the LPSC, one of the major centres of the ISRO having its headquarters at Valiamala in Thiruvananthapuram, with a unit in Bengaluru.
• The ISRO has been in the news recently for launching SpaDex, an indigenously built space docking technology crucial for ambitious missions like Chandrayaan 4 and Gaganyaan. It has put India in an elite list of countries who have that technology. The other countries are the United States, Russia and China. (With inputs from ANI)