Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director K Sivan is next Isro chairman

K Sivan will soon take over as the new Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). Sivan, popularly known as the Rocket Man of Isro, is currently the Director of The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Trivandrum.

Tenure of current Chairman Kiran Kumar's tenure is coming to an end on January 14.

The Appointment Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal based on the recommendation of the SCSC, for appointment of Sivan as Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission for a tenure of three years.

His appointment comes at a time when Isro is planning to outsource construction activities of satellites and rockets for its future launches.

VSSC conducts research on everything, from design of rockets to fuels and composite materials and guidance systems.

At VSSC, design and development activities for all the launch vehicles take place. The centre conducts research on everything, from design of rockets to fuels and composite materials and guidance systems.

One of its major recent achievements was designing of PSLV rocket that had put all the 104 satellites in orbit was designed here. 

He designed software called SITARA, which Isro uses for simulating trajectories of rockets.

He also led the RLV-TD project and was involved in its design qualification, aerodynamic characterisation and hardware development. The PSLV-C37 launch carried innovative experiments such as using the IRNSS navigation system for predicting the orbit of the satellites.