Dr. V. Narayanan
Chairman ISRO, Secretary DOS
Dr. V. Narayanan, Distinguished Scientist (Apex Grade), assumed the charge of Secretary, Department of Space, Chairman, Space Commission and Chairman, ISRO on the afternoon of 13th January, 2025. Prior to this, he served as Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), one of the major Centres of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with its headquarters at Valiamala in Thiruvananthapuram and a unit at Bangalore. As Director, he provided techno-managerial leadership to LPSC, which is engaged in the development of Liquid, Semi-Cryogenic and Cryogenic Propulsion Stages for Launch Vehicles, Chemical and Electric Propulsion Systems for Satellites, Control Systems for Launch Vehicles and Transducer development for propulsion system health monitoring.Dr. V. Narayanan, who is a Rocket & Spacecraft Propulsion Expert, joined ISRO in 1984 and functioned in various capacities. During the initial phase, for 4� years, he worked in the Solid Propulsion area of Sounding Rockets and Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) and Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC). He contributed to process planning, process control and realization of Ablative nozzle systems, Composite motor cases and Composite Igniter cases.
In 1989, he completed his M.Tech in Cryogenic Engineering with First Rank at IIT-Kharagpur and joined the Cryogenic Propulsion area in Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC). ISRO's Geosynchronous launch vehicles, namely GSLV Mk-II & GSLV Mk-III, capable of placing 2-Tonne & 4-Tonne class Communication Satellites in Geo Transfer Orbit, have Cryogenic Propulsion Stages as terminal stages.
As one of the few Cryogenic members working in this area in the beginning, he carried out fundamental research, theoretical & experimental studies and contributed to the successful development and testing of Cryogenic subsystems, namely Gas Generator, Sub-scale Cryogenic engine of 1-tonne thrust and Thrust Chamber of 12-tonne thrust.
Considering the long lead time required for the development of the Cryogenic stage of GSLV Mk-II vehicle, for meeting the initial flights, a few cryogenic stage hardware were procured from Russia. As an expert in Cryogenic propulsion, he contributed to the development of mission management systems, contract management and the successful flights of the GSLV Mk-II vehicle with procured cryogenic stages.
For the sustained operation of GSLV Mk-II, initially, ISRO planned for technology acquisition of the Cryo Stage for manufacturing in India. However, due to geopolitical reasons, the technology acquisition did not succeed and ISRO decided to develop CUS indigenously. Dr. V. Narayanan played a crucial role in the successful development of the Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) and contributed to making it operational for the GSLV Mk-II vehicle.
For the GSLV Mk-III Experimental mission with CARE module, he conceived and realized the Passive Cryogenic Stage and contributed to the successful experimental flight. As the Project Director of the C25 Cryogenic Project, he provided techno-managerial leadership, conceived, designed and developed the 25-tonne Cryogenic Propulsion System of the GSLV Mk-III Launch Vehicle powered by an engine developing a thrust of 200kN. He contributed to establishing the necessary infrastructure and facilities for design, analysis, realization, testing and launching. Due to his innovative approach, the C25 Cryo Stage was developed under his guidance in the shortest time frame with all successful tests and was inducted into the GSLV Mk-III vehicle. Subsequently, he also made the stage operational.
His contribution made India one among six countries in the world to have complex and high-performance cryogenic propulsion systems, achieving self-reliance in this area.
Parallelly, he completed his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur in 2001. The work carried out as part of his M.Tech thesis titled "Cavitating Venturies for Flow Control in Cryogenic Rocket Engines" and Ph.D. thesis titled "Thrust and Mixture Ratio Regulation Systems for Cryogenic Rocket Engines" were directly employed in the development of Indian Cryogenic Propulsion Systems.
For the GSLV Mk-III M1/Chandrayaan-2 Mission, the L110 Liquid Core Stage and C25 Cryogenic Stage were delivered for the vehicle. Propulsion systems for the Orbiter and Vikram lander, which include the throttleable thrusters for soft landing, were also developed and delivered for the Chandrayaan-2 Mission under his guidance. As the Chairman of the National Expert Committee constituted to study the reasons for the hard landing of the Chandrayaan-2 lander, he contributed to pinpointing the reasons and corrective actions required to overcome the observations. He realised and delivered all the Propulsion Systems for Chandrayaan-3.
)
