Chennai: The Government of India has appointed Distinguished Space Scientist and LPSC Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram, Director Dr. V. Narayanan as the next Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Secretary of the Department of Space.

This was announced by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Tuesday evening.

Dr. Narayanan will replace incumbent Chief S. Somanath on Jan. 14. The tenure of Narayanan’s appointment will be for a period of two years or until further orders, whichever comes earlier, a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said.

Normally the Director of VSSC (Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre) would be made the ISRO Chairman and perhaps for the first time the LPSC (Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre) Director was elevated to the post.

It may be noted that Somanath, who helmed ISRO since Jan. 22 after elevated from the post of VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram Director, has several successes to his credit that included the historic third Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-3; the Aditya-L1 first mission to the sun and the latest launch of two SpaDeX satellites.