S. SOMANATH has been at the helm at ISRO for over a year now. In his previous role, he was director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, and prior to that he was director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
An expert in system engineering of launch vehicles, he contributed to the PSLV and the GSLV Mk-III in overall architecture, propulsion stages design, structural dynamics designs, separation systems, vehicle integration and integration procedures development.
He spoke to THE WEEK about ISRO’s priorities, including the forthcoming launch of Chandrayaan-3 and the Aditya L1 and Gaganyaan missions, and about ISRO’s international collaborations.
Q/ What are ISRO’s priorities in 2023?
A/ We have already started our launch programme [for 2023] with the launch of the SSLV D2 (second developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, which caters to launch of satellites weighing up to 500kg). During the first mission—the SSLV D1—we were not able to place satellites into a stable orbit. The second mission was successful. All the satellites were placed in orbit and all of them are doing well. We have plans to increase the production of SSLVs in the coming years.
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