Tribune Web Desk
Chandigarh, September 7
K Sivan, the man behind India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission, rose from humble origins to become Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Son of a farmer in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari, Sivan was the first graduate in his family who got a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology in 1980.
Completing his master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, he later joined ISRO and was a recipient of several awards, including the Dr Vikram Sarabhai Research Award (1999) and Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), from selected universities.
He was appointed ISRO chief in January 2018.
Under Sivan’s tutelage, the ISRO successfully launched Chandrayaan-2, the second mission to the moon on July 22 and he was the chief architect of SITARA, a 6-D trajectory simulation software, which is the backbone of the real-time and non-real-time trajectory simulations of all ISRO launch vehicles.
ISRO’s plan to soft land Chandrayaan-2's Vikram module on the Lunar surface did not go as per script in the early hours of Saturday, with the lander losing communication with ground stations during its final descent. An emontional Sivan broke down today and Prime Minister Narendra Modi comforted him.
Sivan was last month honoured with the Tamil Nadu government’s Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Award. The citation hailed him as “Rocket Man”.
After joining ISRO in 1982, Sivan was inducted into PSLV project. He specialised in aerospace engineering, Space Transportation Systems Engineering, launch vehicle and mission design, control & guidance design and mission simulation software design, Mission synthesis, simulation, analysis and validation of flight systems.
He has significantly contributed towards end-to-end mission planning, design, integration and analysis. His innovative contributions, particularly the strategies adopted in mission design enabled the consistent performance of PSLV. This has also proved to be a good foundation for other launch vehicles of ISRO, like, GSLV MkII & MkIII including RLV-TD.
Sivan is also responsible for commissioning world-class simulation facility in ISRO for mission synthesis and analysis, which is used for mission design, sub-system level validation and integrated validation of avionics systems in all ISRO launch vehicles.
Sivan also developed and implemented an innovative ‘day-of launch wind biasing strategy’ that enables rocket launch on any day, under varied weather and wind conditions.
He was the chief mission architect for successful launch of 104 satellites in a single mission of PSLV. — With agency inputs
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