‘He’s like me, rose from poverty to the top’: Former ISRO chief K Sivan on new chairman V Narayanan | India News

Narayanan, who has spent almost his entire career at the Thiruvananthapuram-based Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), developing and improving propulsion designs of rocket engines and satellites, was on Tuesday appointed the 11th chairman of ISROto succeed S Somanath who will complete his tenure on January 14.

Narayanan, who joined ISRO in 1984, has been one of the main people involved in the indigenous development of cryogenic engines, which has been an outstanding story of ISRO overcoming the technology-denial regime India used to face with till recent years to build systems that are critical for a modern space programme. Cryogenic is the science relating to behaviour of materials at very low temperatures, and cryogenic engines enable the use of hydrogen, one of the most efficient rocket fuels, to be used in its liquid form which is attained only at very low temperatures.

Narayanan’s foray into cryogenics was accidental.

“When he had joined ISRO, he had been assigned to work in the fibre-glass division. I remember my colleague from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Dr S Ramakrishna had asked me whether I was in a position to accommodate an energetic young man who was keen to work on propulsions. I used to be heading the propulsion team. I said ‘Send him, let me see’. Those days we had just begun work on a cryo-engine. This is much before the entire saga of Russian cryogenic technology denied to us under the pressure of the United States. Narayanan came to me and said he was very keen to work on propulsion systems. I took him in,” Vasudev Gnana Gandhi, a former project director on the cryogenic engine programme, and the mentor of Narayanan, told The Indian Express. Gnana Gandhi retired from ISRO in 2006 and is now a senior vice-president with private space company Skyroot which is developing rockets of its own.

“Those days the only basic facility on cryogenic technology was available at IIT Kharagpur. Narayanan was quite an enthusiastic engineer and I suggested that get an MTech from IIT Kharagpur. I knew the people there, particularly Professor Sunil Kumar Sarangi, India’s best cryogenic man at that time who headed the department. I asked Sarangi if he could take Narayanan. Those days things were much easier. Narayanan did extremely well and topped in his MTech batch,” Gnana Gandhi said.

Narayanan returned to work on the cryogenic engines, and was among the 20-odd ISRO engineers sent to Russia to get trained on the Russian technology in the early 1990s. Development of cryogenic technology was a long process, and India had, in the meanwhile, received offers from the United States and Europe for the sale of cryogenic engine along with technology transfer. But these were very expensive and India had rejected these. After that Russian space agency Glavkosmos had come up with an extremely attractive offer which ISRO accepted. The deal involved technology transfer and the training of Indian engineers on Russian technology. However, the United States put pressure on Russia to cancel the agreement, claiming the agreement violated provisions of the Missile Technology Control Regime, which incidentally neither India nor Russia was a member of. Russia, still emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union, succumbed to the US pressure. It did supply seven cryogenic engines, but the technology transfer part could not happen. Narayanan and others had to cut short their visit to Russia and return.

This fiasco had delayed India’s plans to develop the GSLV rocket. Eventually, full-fledged work began on developing indigenous technology for cryogenic technology, with Gnana Gandhi in charge.

“All this while Narayanan worked very closely with me. I had realized that whatever work was given to him, he was not able to sleep properly till the work was completed satisfactorily. As a result, more and more work started flowing to him. Technically, he is very sound. In the meanwhile, he had completed his doctorate and got married and had children, but most of his time was spent in office only,” Gnana Gandhi said.

“He visits me whenever he is in Hyderabad. He came to my house last month and we had jokingly discussed his prospect of becoming the ISRO chief. This morning he called me up to inform me that he had been appointed the ISRO chief. I have been receiving so many calls and emails saying my shishya has become chairman of ISRO. Of course, I feel extremely proud. He deserves it and he will do great,” he said.

Narayanan rose to become the project director of the cryogenic programme and also designed the CE 20 cryogenic engine which powers the LVM-3 rocket (initially known as GSLV-MkIII) that was used for Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 missions. The indigenously developed cryogenic engine became a reality in 2015 and is now an integral part of all heavy-lift launch vehicles. Narayanan is also credited with the development of the cryogenic engine mathematical modelling and simulation software.

“In many ways, he is like me,” former ISRO chairman K Sivan said of Narayanan. “We both came from village backgrounds, from poor families, went to small Tamil-medium government schools, and then worked hard to reach the top. It also says a lot about the organization which has allowed people like us to rise. Nothing matters except talent, hard work and dedication,” Sivan, who was project director of the GSLV rocket that eventually got fitted with the cryogenic engine.

“I am very happy for Narayanan. He is an excellent choice for chairman. He has the expertise and experience and the vision. He has worked very hard and contributed immensely to the development of cryogenic technology. I am sure he will take ISRO to new heights,” Sivan told The Indian Express.

Narayanan has been the director of LPSC since 2018. Under his leadership, LPSC is currently developing the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), an even more powerful rocket that would give shape to India’s ambition of setting up its own space station and sending humans to moon.

He was also the chairman of the committee constituted to study the reasons for hard landing of Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019. Based on the recommendations of his committee, corrective measures were taken for the Chandrayaan-3 missions.