#JUSTIN | Senior @isro scientist S Unnikrishnan Nair has taken charge as the director of #VSSC. Nair will continue to also hold the position of director, #HSFC (Human Space Flight Centre) that is spearheading the #Gaganyaan programme. 1/n 
He has B.Tech in mechanical engineering from Kerala University, ME in Aerospace engg from @iiscbangalore, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from @iitmadras. 2/n
“Some missions will be taken up on priority. SSLV will come in April, Gaganyaan test vehicle missions will be this year, and we are looking at #chandrayaan3. These are immediate goals. We'll continue with overall Gaganyaan activities and other projects," Nair told me. 3/n
A ‘Distinguished Scientist’ Nair is the first HSFC director who started his career in VSSC in 1985. During his tenure at VSSC, he has made significant contributions in launch vehicle mechanisms, acoustic protection systems and payload fairing areas. 4/n
“He was the member-secretary of the study team for Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) and deputy project director of SRE for deceleration and recovery systems... 5/n
...He was associated with devp of recovery systems for SRE & involved in SRE capsule recovery from sea. He was associated with the HSF prog since its inception as project director for techn devp activities,” VSSC’s description of Nair’s contributions reads. 6/n
He was also the payload director for CARE (Crew module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment), where a prototype of Crew Module was flown successfully on December 18, 2014 in LVM3X vehicle. 7/n
Nair served as deputy director (structures entity) of VSSC till Jan 2017 concurrently with human space flight tech devp. He led the team for technology development of Crew Escape System and was its mission director for the Pad Abort Test held on July 5, 2018. 8/n
“Prior to the formation of HSFC, he was serving as programme director of Advanced Space Transportation System leading all advanced projects like human spaceflight, air breathing propulsion and reusable launch vehicle development,” VSSC said. 9/n
Nair at present is still in Bengaluru. He will be going to VSSC soon to take stock of things. And then we'll see a lot of shuttling. But thankfully, a lot of #Gaganyaan work is also happening at VSSC. n/n
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