Dr Narayanan has a host of achievements to his credit, and among the most significant was his work towards helping develop key technologies used in Isro’s launch vehicles, including the workhorse PSLV and the country’s heaviest LVM3, a version of which will be deployed to ferry a human crew to space in the Gaganyaan mission.
The new Isro chief also headed the prestigious LPSC, which is helping in the development of the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) — a heavier launch vehicle that would be needed for India’s ambition of setting up its own space station and sending a man to the moon. This vehicle will have the capacity to carry 30 tonnes to low earth orbit (LEO).
Some lesser known facts about India’s new ISRO chief, V Narayanan
1) In the Kanyakumari District’s Melakattu village, close to Nagercoil, Narayanan was born in 1964. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 1989 with a first rank M.Tech. in Cryogenic Engineering and in 2001 with a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering.
2) He began his career at the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicles (ASLV), Solid Propulsion area for Sounding Rockets, and polar satellite launch Vehicles (PSLV) at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC).
3) He also helped with the design, management, and implementation of composite motor cases, composite igniter cases, and additive nozzle systems.
4) Narayanan is currently the director of the LPSC, one of the main ISRO centers, which has a Bengaluru unit in addition to its headquarters in Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram.
5) He played a key role in India being self-sufficient in this field and one of the six nations with sophisticated, high-performance cryogenic propulsion systems worldwide.
6) His leadership of the Failure Analysis Committee for Chandrayaan 2, the mission when the Vikram Lander crashed, was one of his most recent achievements. Once he figured it out, India Vikram’s safe landing at Shiv Shakti Point made Chandrayaan 3 a huge success.
