NEW DELHI: V Narayanan, who will take over the reins of Isro from chairman S Somanath on Jan 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 country’s development of a cryogenic engine – a technology that was crucial for the launch of Chandrayaan-2 and 3 missions.
Narayanan, who described the new role as a great responsibility entrusted by PM Modi, paid respects to space veterans who shaped India’s space journey, including the father of the Indian space programme, Vikram Sarabhai, and former Isro chairman K Sivan. Hoping to take Isro to “greater heights”, Narayanan, who completed MTech cryogenic engineering with first rank from IIT-Kharagpur, and later, did PhD in aerospace engineering from IIT-Kgp, thanked Isro for “allowing me to do higher studies”. He told the media, “There is no substitute for hard work. And if a work is done with a single-minded focus, everything is achievable.”
The eldest son of late C Vanniyaperumal, a small farmer, and late S Thangammal, Narayanan was born in a poor family in Melakattuvilai village of Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district.
Narayanan did his schooling from a govt primary school and nearby high school in Tamil medium. His house was electrified only when he was in Class 9. Until then, he and his siblings studied using kerosene lamps. The primary school where he studied didn’t even have a proper roof.
“One day, his teachers announced the successful landing of a man (Nasa astronaut Neil Armstrong) on the Moon. He recalls that incident even today with passion,” an Isro scientist, who heard him saying it, told TOI. Despite all the hardships in childhood days, Narayanan passed Class 10 with first rank. In his zeal to pursue higher studies, he did AMIE mechanical engineering and later completed M.Tech and Ph.D from IIT-Kgp.
Narayanan got his first appointment as diploma trainee in TI diamond chain limited of TI Cycles, Chennai. Narayanan joined Isro’s rocket centre VSSC in Thiruvananthapuram on Feb 1, 1984. He is a rocket and spacecraft propulsion expert and functioned in various capacities before becoming the director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre. During the initial phase, he worked in the solid propulsion area of sounding rockets and ASLV and PSLV at VSSC.
