Rakesh Sharma: Meet another IAF pilot who pierced skies in a Russian spacecraft 40 years before Shubhanshu Shukla

Well before IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla etched a new chapter in India's human space programme, Astronaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma made the nation proud when he spent seven days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes in space on board the Salyut 7 space station.

Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to travel to space. This achievement came with a joint Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Soviet Interkosmos space programme.

Rakesh Sharma joined the National Defence Academy (NDA) in July 1966 as an air force freshman, and in 1970 he got commissioned as a pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and became a fighter pilot. He joined Hindustan Aeronautics in 1987 as its chief test pilot. In 2001, he moved out to take on the chairman of the board of Automated Workflow (a Bengaluru-based process-management company).




It was in 1982 that Rakesh Sharma got chosen to become part of a joint Soviet-Indian spaceflight as a cosmonaut. On 3 April 1984, he and two cosmonauts from the Soviet Union (flight engineer Gennady Strekalov and commander Yury Malyshev) flew on board Soyuz T-11 to the space station Salyut 7. At the space station, Rakesh Sharma conducted various exercises and experiments, such as yoga’s effects on the human body in weightlessness and taking photographs of India from outer space.

For Group Captain Shukla, this will be an opportunity to emulate fellow Indian Air Force Officer Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on 3 April 1984 as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme. Sharma spent seven days in space on board the Salyut 7 space station.

At the space station, Rakesh Sharma conducted experiments, such as understanding yoga's effects on the human body in weightlessness and taking photographs of India from outer space. When PM Indira Gandhi asked him how India looked from space, he replied, "Saare Jahan Se Achha", a phrase that has become an iconic milestone in India's Space Odyssey.

Shukla created history
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla scripted history by embarking on a space odyssey along with three others to the International Space Station as part of a commercial mission by Axiom Space on Wednesday.

The much-delayed Axiom-4 mission blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 12:01 pm IST towards the ISS amid cheers from watch parties organised across the world, including at Shukla's City Montessori School in Lucknow where his parents witnessed the historic launch.

The Lucknow-born Shukla, former NASA astronaut Mission Commander Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary are part of the Axiom-4 mission that marks the return to space for the three nations.

Shukla became the first astronaut to travel to the International Space Station, a journey that comes 41 years after Rakesh Sharma’s eight days in orbit as part of the then Soviet Union's Salyut-7 space station in 1984.

"Greetings from India.. have a fun time guys," Sharma said in a video message.

The targeted docking time is approximately 4.30 pm IST on Thursday, June 26, NASA said in a statement.