NEW DELHI: V Narayananwho will take over the reins of Isro from Chairman S Somanath on January 14, is the son of a farmer who rose through the ranks in India’s elite space agency to become a cryogenic engine developer and played a key role in the development of a cryogenic engine in the country, a technology that was crucial for the launch of the Chandrayaan-2 and 3 missions.
Narayanan, who described his new role as a huge responsibility entrusted to him by Prime Minister Modi, paid tribute to space veterans who shaped India’s space journey, including the father of the Indian space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, and former president of isro K Sivan. Hoping to take Isro to “greater heights”, Narayanan, who completed MTech cryogenic engineering with first rank from IIT-Kharagpur, and later did a PhD in aerospace engineering from IIT-Kgp, thanked Isro for “allowing me to pursue higher studies”. He told the media: “There is no substitute for hard work. And if work is done with a single purpose, everything can be achieved.”
Narayanan, eldest son of late C Vanniyaperumal, a small farmer, and late S Thangammal, was born in a poor family in Melakattuvilai village of Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.
Narayanan studied at a public primary school and a nearby Tamil-language secondary school. His house was only electrified when he was in class 9. Until then, he and his brothers studied with kerosene lamps. The primary school where he studied did not even have a proper roof.
“One day, his teachers announced the successful landing of a man (NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong) on the Moon. Even today he remembers that incident with passion,” an Isro scientist, who heard him say it, told TOI. Despite all the difficulties of his childhood, Narayanan passed Class 10 with first rank. In his quest to pursue higher studies, he did AMIE Mechanical Engineering and then completed M.Tech and Ph.D at IIT-Kgp.
Narayanan got his first appointment as a Diploma Trainee in TI Diamond Chain Limited of TI Cycles, Chennai. Narayanan joined Isro’s VSSC rocket center in Thiruvananthapuram on February 1, 1984. He is an expert in rocket and spacecraft propulsion and worked in various capacities before becoming director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre. During the initial phase he worked in the area of solid propulsion of sounding rockets and ASLV and PSLV at VSSC.