THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a brief hiatus during the Covid period, ISRO is now on the back of continuous achievements in space. Chandrayaan 3, which was launched on July 14 under the leadership of Chairman S. Somanath, landed at the South Pole of the moon on August 23. This was followed by Aditya L1's launch yesterday. The Gaganyaan test was also announced for October. Gaganyaan's Crew Module Escape system will be tested in mid-October. After that, there are launches like Nisar, Exposat and Insat 3DS in collaboration with NASA.

Oneweb satellite was launched in March, the Teleos satellite in April, and a navigation satellite in May. In February, an Earth observation satellite was launched using SSLV.

Aditya was launched yesterday using XL, a modified version of the PSLV rocket used to launch Chandrayaan 1 and Mangalyaan. This also marked the 25th launch of this rocket. The rocket was built at VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram under the leadership of Director Dr. Unnikrishnan Nair.

Somnath, who assumed the post of ISRO chief in January last year, courageously undertook the Chandrayaan-3, Gaganyaan and Aditya L-1 missions.

S Somnath is the third Malayali after Dr G Madhavan Nair and Dr K Radhakrishnan to head the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Somnath, a native of Aroor, Alappuzha, studied at TKM Engineering College, Kollam. He is an expert in rocket design and technology.