ISRO Appoints U.P. Rajeev as New Director of Its Key Rocket Development Centre, VSSC

India's space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has appointed Dr. U.P. Rajeev as the new Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, commonly known as VSSC. The centre, headquartered in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, is ISRO's primary facility for designing and developing the rockets — called launch vehicles — that carry satellites and spacecraft into space. Dr. Rajeev's name now appears on the VSSC official website as its Director, confirming the change in leadership.

Dr. Rajeev hails from Pathanapuram in Kollam district, Kerala. Before this appointment, he served as the Associate Director (Research and Development) at VSSC itself, making him a well-known internal figure within the organisation. His decades of work have centred on rocket control and guidance systems — the technology that steers a rocket on the correct path after it lifts off — and he has contributed to the mission design and computer simulations of several major ISRO rocket programmes.

In terms of education, Dr. Rajeev completed his undergraduate degree in Applied Electronics and Instrumentation from the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram. He then earned a postgraduate degree in Instrumentation and Control Systems from the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, and went on to obtain a PhD from the Indian Institute of Science — one of India's most prestigious research institutions — before joining ISRO.

To understand why this appointment matters, it helps to know what VSSC actually does. The centre has been at the heart of India's rocketry story since the beginning, having worked on the SLV (Satellite Launch Vehicle), India's first rocket, and later on the more advanced PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle), and LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3). Each of these rockets has played a distinct role in placing satellites into different orbits around the Earth, and VSSC is the engineering brain behind all of them.

The director's chair at VSSC has seen notable occupants in recent years. Dr. S. Somanath served as VSSC Director from 2018 to 2022 before going on to become ISRO Chairman and leading the landmark Chandrayaan-3 mission — India's historic Moon landing in 2023. He was succeeded by Dr. S. Unnikrishnan Nair, who retired on 31 July 2025. Dr. A. Rajarajan had assumed charge as Director effective 1 August 2025, but the VSSC website now lists Dr. U.P. Rajeev as Director, indicating a further change in leadership shortly after.

Recent milestones linked to VSSC include the GSLV-F15/NVS-02 mission, which boosted India's navigation satellite system, and the PSLV-C60/SpaDeX mission, which demonstrated India's ability to dock two spacecraft in orbit — a technology essential for future deep-space and crewed missions. These achievements show the pace at which VSSC is expected to deliver results.

The stakes are high. India's current ISRO Chairman, V. Narayanan, has publicly stated that India needs to grow its satellite fleet from 54 to 100 satellites within the next three to four years. Achieving that goal depends directly on VSSC's ability to produce and launch more rockets. The centre is also central to Gaganyaan, India's human spaceflight programme that aims to send Indian astronauts to space, as well as next-generation rocket development projects.

Dr. Rajeev's specialisation in rocket guidance and control systems — the very technology that determines whether a rocket reaches its intended destination — makes him well-suited for this role at a moment when ISRO's launch ambitions are growing faster than ever. His appointment is widely seen as a signal that VSSC will continue to push forward on multiple ambitious fronts simultaneously.