Meet Gaganyaan’s astronauts: Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan and Shubhanshu Shukla

Who are the four chosen ones?

Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair: Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair is a Keralite who was trained in Russia for the human space flight mission. He graduated from the National Defence Academy and joined the Air Force as a commissioned officer in 1999, as per a report in the Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi. He is a fighter pilot who flies Sukhoi warplanes, it added.

PM #NarendraModi on Feb 27 announced the names of the four astronauts that will fly to low-Earth orbit as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s #Gaganyaan, which will be the first crewed Indian space mission.

The PM made the announcement while visiting the Vikram… pic.twitter.com/DWlW6xiHjV

— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) February 27, 2024

Other local media reports have identified Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair as a native of Palakkad who graduated with the first rank from the US Air Command and Staff College in Alabama. Besides training in Russia, he has trained in Bengaluru’s Human Space Flight Centre as well, said reports.

#WATCH | At Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram, PM Modi says “I am happy that today I got the opportunity to meet these astronauts and present them in front of the country. I want to congratulate them on behalf of the entire country…You are the pride of… pic.twitter.com/sMyvVb28Pr

— ANI (@ANI) February 27, 2024

Ajit Krishnan: Group Captain Ajit Krishnan is among the four people picked to be a part of the mission. As per reports, three of the four crew members would ultimately be selected to go on the space mission.

Views from the #Indian astronauts’ training programme during their time in Russia.

• Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair
• Group Captain Ajit Krishnan
• Group Captain Angad Prathap
• Wing Commander Shubhansku Shukla#Gaganyaan #ISRO pic.twitter.com/833zX4nLJG

— ISRO InSight (@ISROSight) February 27, 2024

Angad Prathap: Group Captain Angad Prathap has trained along with the other three members of the group in Russia for 13 months, as per ISRO.

Shubhanshu Shukla: Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla too has been trained in Moscow’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in various aspects of space movement.

With the Gaganyaan project, ISRO hopes to demonstrate India’s human spaceflight capability by launching a three-member crew to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission. The astronauts will return to the earth by landing in Indian sea waters.

The pre-requisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies including a human-rated launch vehicle for carrying the crew safely to space, a Life Support System to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space, crew emergency escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew, reported ANI quoting ISRO.