spacetoday.net: New ISRO chairman named

Posted: Wed, Oct 28, 2009, 6:37 AM ET (1037 GMT)
The Indian space agency will get a new leader at the end of this month, government officials announced over the weekend. K Radhakrishnan, current director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, will become chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation at the end of the month. He will replace G Madhavan Nair, who is retiring after six years as the head of ISRO. Radhakrishnan, who started his career at ISRO in 1971, said that his first priority will be to to oversee the launch of a communications satellite on a new version of the GSLV rocket with an indigenously-developed cryogenic engine. He said he also would focus on plans to develop a human spaceflight program.