S Somnath
Sreedhara Panicker Somanath is an Indian aerospace engineer who is 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 Pragyaan landed near the lunar south pole region on the 23rd of 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 a soft landing on the Moon's surface. S. Somanath has served as the director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram and director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Thiruvananthapuram. He is known for his contributions to launch vehicle design, particularly in launch vehicle systems engineering, structural design, structural dynamics, and pyrotechnics.
