Dr. Sreedhara Panicker Somanath served as a Distinguished Scientist (Apex Grade) and Secretary, Department of Space (DoS), Chairman, Space Commission and Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) from January 2022 to January 2025. Dr. S. Somanath, is currently the Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor at ISRO. Dr. S. Somanath, having a career spanning nearly 40 years, is an expert in the field of space technology and systems engineering of launch vehicles, and has made significant contributions in many areas.

As Secretary of DoS, he had piloted the National Space Policy, engagement of ISRO with private space initiatives and start-ups in space sector and enabled aggregation of user demands, take up commercial activities including Launch vehicle production and spacecraft operations by NSIL. Overcoming many challenges and accomplishing mission Chandrayaan-3 landing near the south pole of the Moon was under his leadership. Notable accomplishments include Aditya-L1, XpoSat, INSAT-3DS, NVS-01, Oceansat, GSAT-24, SpaDeX and commercial PSLV & LVM3-OneWeb missions. Under his leadership Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and Test Vehicle (TV) were developed and landing experiments of the Re-usable Launch Vehicle (RLV-LEX) was accomplished. He played a crucial role in the architecture of Gaganyaan and accomplished the first Test Vehicle flight for mission abort demonstration. He was instrumental in developing the ‘Space Vision-2047’, where Gaganyaan expansion program, Chandrayaan series and other exploration missions, Bharatiya Antariksha Station development and human mission to Moon, new launch pads were developed and got approved.

As Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) during 2018-21, he was responsible for Launch vehicle technology development. LVM3-M1/Chandrayaan-2 mission, development of critical systems for the Gaganyaan programme, Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, Re-usable Launch Vehicle-LEX & ORV, Air-Breathing technology programs were under his leadership. He was the Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) during 2015-18 where, the development and qualification of C25 cryogenic engine and stage was completed and successfully flown in LVM3-D1 flight and accomplished first time launch of electric propulsion system in GSAT. He was the lead system engineer of the LVM3 rocket and was the Project Director for the Experimental flight of LVM3-X/CARE mission which was successfully accomplished in December, 2014. He was the Associate Director of VSSC and Deputy Director of Propulsion Entity (PRSO) of VSSC. He worked as the Project manager and integration engineer in PSLV project in his early phase of the career.

Dr. S. Somanath took his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from TKM College of Engineering, Kollam with a university rank, Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore with gold medal and PhD from IITM Chennai. He has been bestowed with many Honorary Doctorates from universities including, Centurion, Karunya, Satyabhama, SRM, Uttarakhand TU, Sarada Birla, Bangalore, JNTU, KUHS, Amity, VTU & DY Patil Vidyapeeth.

He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow of Indian National Academy of Science (INSA), Fellow of Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), Astronautical Society of India (ASI) and a member of International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He is the President (Elect) of AeSI and President of Society of Aerospace Quality and Reliability (SAQR). He is the recipient of ‘Hall of Fame’ award from International Astronautics Federation (IAF), National Aeronautics Prize from AeSI, Space gold medal from ASI, Platinum Jubilee award and Distinguished alumni award of IISc, Bangalore and IIT Madras, distinguished fellow award from IIT Kanpur and Karnataka Rajyotsava award.

He has published papers in journals and conferences in the area of structural dynamics and control, materials modelling, dynamic analysis of separation mechanisms, vibration and acoustic testing, launch vehicle design and launch services management. Dr. S. Somanath has widely travelled and visited across most global space agencies and facilities, has been a delegate to UN-COPUOS, vice President of International Astronautical Federation (IAF) and participated in International Astronautical Congress (IAC) held at different countries.