[5] He is set to lead the organization during the ongoing development of various upcoming programs, including the Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan-4 missions, as well as the launch of India's first space station in the forthcoming years.

[6] Narayanan was born in the Melakattuvilai village near Nagercoil in Kanyakumari District in the state of Tamil Nadu, on 14 May 1964, to C. Vanniya Perumal, a coconut trader and S. Thangammal.

Because his family could afford to pay for only one brother's education, Narayanan chose not to pursue the course at Anna University, his dream college.

[10] Narayanan joined ISRO in 1984, initially working in the Solid Propulsion area for Rohini Sounding Rockets, Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicles (ASLV), and Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV) at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram.

Under his guidance, the system was developed in a short time frame and successfully inducted into the GSLV Mk-III vehicle.

Narayanan's team built and dispatched the L110 Vikas engine for the Chandrayaan-2 and Chandrayaan-3 missions, which were used by both spacecrafts in their landing attempts on the moon.

For the Gaganyaan mission, his team is working on the crewed flight capable versions of the GSLV Mk-III launch vehicle and the L110 and C32 engines.

[14] Narayanan set ISRO's Propulsion Road Map for 2017 to 2037,[1] and LPSC, during his directorship, began building the reusable Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV).

During his tenure, the LPSC delivered 183 liquid propulsion systems for 41 launch vehicles and 31 spacecraft missions over seven years.

[9] Experts who spoke to The Indian Express have said the reason Narayanan was appointed as ISRO chairman, instead of VSSC chairman S. Unnikrishnan Nair, was Narayanan's identification of errors made during Chandrayaan-2's landing attempt and fixing these in Chandrayaan-3's lander, which led to a successful landing.