Keeping in mind that India’s space program’s flagship projects such as Gagayaan and Chandrayaan-3 are pending, the Centre has extended the services of K.Sivan as the Secretary, Department of Space for 1 more year.
The ISRO Chairman’s tenure as Space Secretary was set to expire by Jan 14, 2021. Now he will continue his services upto Jan 14, 2022 or further orders arrive. The orders were given by Personnel Ministry order
Sivan has been a member of ISRO since 1982 and worked on several important space projects, particularly the launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) Project.
He was appointed as the director of ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre on 2 July 2014. On 1 June 2015, he became the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. He was appointed the Chief of ISRO in January 2018 and he assumed office on 15 January. Under his chairmanship, ISRO launched Chandrayaan 2, the second mission to the moon on July 22, 2019.
Though it failed, it remains an important part in the history of India’s Space aspirations, and it gave way to Chandrayaan 3 which will be an economic space program. The Chandrayaan 2 cost more than Rs.950 crores but Chandrayaan 3 will be about Rs. 615 crores, according to Sivan.
The lunar mission will be similar to its predecessor; about studying the lunar South Pole and the nature of the environment there. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (MoS) for the Department of Space shared in September,2020 that this mission will not include an orbiter like the Chandrayaan-2, but will feature a rover and a lander for exploration of the Moon’s surface.
Sivan’s expertise is much needed for Chandrayaan-3. Due to the pandemic, the 3rd mission did not hit the skies. It could get a lift off early in 2021. The News Minute reported that at present, Sivan acts as the chief architect of 6D trajectory simulation software SITARA, a backbone of real-time and non-real-time trajectory simulations of all ISRO launch vehicles.