Chandrayaan-3, India’s upcoming lunar mission, will be controlled by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Chandrayaan-3 will launch to the moon, at 2:35 p.m. IST on July 14, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India.
The current chairman of ISRO is S Somanath. In the Indian space sector, he is the fourth Keralite to hold the top position.
Sreedhara Panicker Somanath is an Indian aeronautical engineer who was born in July 1963. Somanath held the positions of director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre and the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. He is renowned for his contributions to the design of launch vehicles, especially in the fields of structural dynamics, structural design and pyrotechnics.
Somanath earned his pre-degree from the Maharaja’s College in Ernakulam, and then pursued mechanical engineering at the TKM College of Engineering. He then joined the VSSC centre in 1985 and hasn’t looked back since.
Later, he earned a master’s degree in aerospace engineering with a focus in dynamics and control from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.
He was involved with the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) Project at the ISRO during its early stages.
Later, in 2010, he was appointed Project Director for the GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle as well as Associate Director (Projects) of the VSSC. Up until November 2014, he was also the Propulsion and Space Ordinance Entity’s Deputy Director.
He acquired leadership of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram, in June 2015 and held that position till January 2018.
After Sivan became the Chairman of the ISRO, Somanath succeeded him as Director of the VSSC. He again succeeded K Sivan as chairman of ISRO in January 2022 and, hence, became the 10th Chairman of the ISRO.
India has the chance to take the initiative in the global reaction to the moon’s rising significance in the scientific and political spheres with the help of Chandrayaan-3.