ISRO chairman K Sivan gets one-year extension

New Delhi, December 31: The Modi-led Government has extended of tenure of Space Secretary and Space Commission Chairman K Sivan by one year. With this decision Sivan will continue to serve as secretary, DoS, and ISRO chief until Jan 14, 2022.

 

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension of tenure of K Sivan, secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Space Commission, for a period of one-year beyond January 14, 2021, that is up to January 14, 2022, it said.

 

Reacting to the news, ISRO Chairman said, "First of all, I want to thank the government for allowing me to serve the space system more." He added that he wants to give a boost to ISRO's new development of the semi-cryogenic engine and electric propulsion system.

 

 

Sivan is 10 th Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). On 14 January 2018, he took the charge from AK Kiran Kumar who was the former chairman of ISRO.

 

He has specialisation in Aerospace engineering, Space Transportation Systems Engineering, Launch vehicle and mission design, control & guidance design and mission simulation software design, Mission synthesis, simulation, analysis, and validation of flight systems. He is also the chief architect of 6D trajectory simulation software, SITARA which is the backbone of the real-time and non-real-time trajectory simulations of all ISRO launch vehicles.

 

He commissioned a world-class simulation facility in ISRO for mission synthesis and analysis which is used for mission design, sub-system level validation, and integrated validation of avionics systems in all ISRO launch vehicles. He developed and implemented an innovative day-of launch wind biasing strategy which has made possible rocket launch on any day of the year at any weather and wind conditions.

 

He was also the project director of the GSLV Project. His leadership led to the historical achievement of the most successful GSLV flight with the indigenous cryogenic stage. Apart from this, ISRO launched Chandrayaan 2, the second mission to the moon on July 22, 2019, under his chairmanship. Moreover, the space agency is also planning to launch its maiden human space flight mission 'Gaganyaan' by December 2021.