How can the simultaneous retirement of several senior officials in ISRO impact future space missions? What are the challenges facing the new leadership team amid the Gaganyaan mission and upcoming launch events? Who has currently been entrusted with the responsibility of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) and Liquid Propulsion Systems Center (LPSC)?
Thiruvananthapuram: IA major leadership change is being seen in SRO i.e. Indian Space Research Organisation. The directors of the most important centers here are changing. Permanent appointments have not yet been made at Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram and Liquid Propulsion System Center (LPSC) in Valiyamala after the retirement of the existing heads. Efforts were also made to extend the tenure of some directors, but they were not successful. Along with this, many big faces of India’s space agency have now taken retirement.
Vikram Sarabhai Space Center chief A. Rajarajan, Sriharikota’s Satish Dhawan Space Center chief E.S. Padmakumar and ISRO Telemetry and Tracking Center chief Dr. A. Of. Anilkumar retired on 31 May. This time no head of any center was given extension in tenure. Nilesh Desai, head of the Space Applications Centre, and M Mohan, head of the Valiyamala Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, retired at the end of April. The result was that heads of five major centers of ISRO changed simultaneously.
Important missions, new responsibilities
Soumya Sarkar has become the new head of Space Application Centre. He is to retire in July this year, but there is no clear information on whether his tenure will be extended or not. Associate Director in LPSC N. Jayan and Dr. U., Associate Director of R&D Department at VSSC. P. Rajeev has been given temporary responsibility at present. S at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, ISRO’s main launching centre. Muttuchezhiyan is the new chief. At the same time, M.R. in ITRAC Raghavendra has been made the new director. Dr. N., head of Bengaluru’s Laboratory for Electro-Optical Systems (LEOS). Sriram also retired on May 31, replaced by R. Venkateshwaran has taken.
The heads of Thiruvananthapuram Inertial Systems Unit and Mahendragiri ISRO Propulsion Complex are also scheduled to retire this month. If the tenure is not extended then the satellite maker U of Bengaluru. R. Rao Satellite Center chief M. Shankaran will also retire in August. Although change in leadership is a normal process, it is rare to see so many people changing simultaneously in such important centres. In the past years, it has been seen that some chiefs used to get extensions so that the new team could be prepared. A. Rajarajan, E.S. Padmakumar, M. Mohan and Nilesh Desai had earlier got an extension of two years each. IPRC chief Asir Pakkiraj is also on extension. This time also an attempt was made to extend extension for some directors, but things did not work out.
This major change in leadership is happening at a time when ISRO is trying to recover from the consecutive PSLV failures. ISRO has not conducted any launch mission since the failure of PSLV-C62. GSLV is ready for launch, but its launch date is getting postponed. The first unmanned mission of the country’s pride Gaganyaan mission is also getting delayed. Now the heavy responsibility of bringing all these things back on track is on the shoulders of the new team.