S. Somanath

Sreedhara Panicker Somanath (born July 1963) is an Indian aerospace engineer serving as the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Under his chairmanship, ISRO carried out the third Indian lunar exploration mission named Chandrayaan-3. The lander named Vikram and the rover named Pragyan landed near the lunar south pole region on 23 August 2023 at 18:04 IST, making India the first country to successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole and the fourth country to demonstrate soft landing on the Moon.

In this Indian name, the name Sreedhara Panicker is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Somanath.

S. Somanath
Somanath in 2019
10th Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation
Assumed office
15 January 2022 (2022-01-15)
Preceded byK. Sivan
Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre
In office
24 January 2018 – 14 January 2022
Preceded byK. Sivan
Succeeded byS. Unnikrishnan Nair
Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre
In office
1 January 2015 – 23 January 2018
Preceded byK. Sivan
Succeeded byV. Narayanan
Personal details
BornJuly 1963 (age 60)
Thuravoor, Cherthala, Kerala, India
SpouseValsalakumari
Children2
Alma materThangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering (B.Tech., Mechanical Engineering).
Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (M.Tech., Aerospace Engineering).

Somanath served as the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram and director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. Somanath is known for his contributions to launch vehicle design, particularly in the areas of launch vehicle systems engineering, structural design, structural dynamics, and pyrotechnics.

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