January 14, 2021 -- January 14, 2021
Shri S. Somanath has taken on the roles of Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission. Prior to this, he spent four years as the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram and also served for two and a half years as the Director of the Liquid […]
Shri S. Somanath has taken on the roles of Secretary of the Department of Space and Chairman of the Space Commission. Prior to this, he spent four years as the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram and also served for two and a half years as the Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) in Valiamala.
Shri Somanath holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, and a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, where he specialized in Structures, Dynamics, and Control and graduated with a Gold Medal. He began his career at VSSC in 1985, where he led the integration of the PSLV during its early stages.
An expert in the system engineering of launch vehicles, Shri Somanath has significantly contributed to the PSLV and GSLV MkIII programs, focusing on their overall architecture, propulsion stage design, structural dynamics, separation systems, vehicle integration, and the development of integration procedures.
