Prime Minister Narendra Modi has named 4 astronauts who are elite fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force to be part of India’s first human-crewed spaceflight -the Gaganyaan mission.
The PM made this announcement during his visit to the Indian Space Research Organisation. The four astronauts are IAF group captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, group captain Ajit Krishnan, group captain Angad Pratap and wing commander Shubhanshu Shukla. They have been training for the Gaganyaan mission in the Russian and Indian facilities for the past five years. They were also awarded ”Antriksh Yatri Pankh” (astronaut wings) by the Prime Minister.
They were introduced by PM Modi who said that they were the ”four horses” who will carry on the shoulders the aspirations of 1.4 billion people.
Indians will be travelling to space after more than 40 years and this time, the rocket and countdown will be India’s.
