Dr. Vinod Kumar: A Space Enthusiast Fostering India’s Private Space Endeavors
Dr. Vinod Kumar is presently Director, Promotion Directorate at Indian National Space Promotion & Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe), Department of Space. A distinguished figure in India’s space domain, currently helms the Promotion Directorate at the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe). His journey, intricately woven with the Indian space narrative, showcases a blend of technical expertise, leadership acumen, and a fervent passion for space exploration.
Before joining IN-SPACe he was heading the GEO Control Dynamics Design Division and working as Deputy Project Director, Attitude and Orbit control System, at U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), ISRO, Bengaluru. He is also working as Executive Secretary, Astronautical Society of India (ASI). He is fellow of the Institution of Engineers, India and The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers. He joined URSC in 1997, where he has been involved with the design and development of Attitude and Orbit Control Systems of over three dozen satellites in the last nearly ~25 years. He has developed crucial technologies for satellites and a critical mirror motion compensation technique for ISRO’s meteorological satellite series. He has also developed autonomy for GEO satellites which has become the backbone of ISRO’s fleet of spacecraft including Mars
Orbiter Mission.
Dr. Vinod worked as member of Peer review committee, for Chandrayaan-2 s/c, to validate the mission operations procedures before clearing for uplink to spacecraft. He was identified as Team Leader for the task team formed to identify the non-nominal observations during powered descent phase of the Vikram-Lander, Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander.
He also worked as member of standing design review committee for navigation guidance and control (NGC) systems. He has reviewed the functional requirements for Chandrayaan -3 guidance, navigation and control (GNC) and guided the controls team for development of various algorithms and autonomy logics.
Dr. Vinod Kumar chaired the the committee formed to review functional requirements of the Aditya L1 mission launched to study the coronal mass ejection from the Sun and its impact.
He has been awarded ISRO team excellence award in 2006 by His Excellency former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for in orbit management of spacecraft operations. He was again chosen for team excellence award in 2011 for GSAT-12 spacecraft AOCS design, development and realization.
Dr. Vinod is alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In his doctoral research, he developed autonomous navigation techniques for collocated geostationary satellites at a desired longitude using Indian Regional Navigation Satellites System (IRNSS/NavIC).
He is a ISO 9001:2015 certified Lead Auditor from Indian Institute of Quality Management. He has over forty publications in National and International reputed journals and conferences. He holds a patent on “System for vision-based self-decisive planetary hazard free landing of a space vehicle”. His additional technical interests include “Missile detection, AI, Terrain navigation, Guidance, Pulsar navigation, Space rentry, Mars explorations and interplanetary missions”.
Before joining the URSC, he worked with Indian Air Force, on fighter aircraft control systems and also held Faculty position at Regional Engineering College, Haryana, India and SJPML Institute of Technology, Radaur, Haryana.
