Padmakumar E.S. is the new director of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota
As the new director of SDSC SHAR, Mr. Padmakumar succeeds A. Rajarajan, who has moved to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, as its director.
Mr. Padmakumar is joining the spaceport at a time when ISRO is gearing up for the missions as part of the Gaganyaan programme and launches from industries.
At IISU, Mr. Padmakumar was leading the development of high-accuracy navigation sensors such as Hemispherical Resonant Gyro and other inertial systems. The navigation systems for Chandrayaan-3 were developed by his team. He also led the robotics activities including the India's first space robotics arm, RRMTD (Relocatable Robotic Manipulator Technology Development) which flew on the PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM-4) mission.
Mr. Padmakumar joined VSSC in 1986 and has held several important positions including Group Director, Deputy Director, and Associate Director.
A native of Moorkanikara, Thrissur, Mr. Padmakumar is an alumnus of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, and the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. His wife Radha R.K. is a senior scientist and division head at Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute, Palode. Their daughter, Medha Padmakumar, is an electronics engineer.
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