Apr 12, 2023
By: Anagh PalInternational Space Flight Day is observed on April 12 each year to celebrate the historic achievement of humans venturing into space. On the same day in 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into space. Here are Indian astronauts who were a part of space expeditions.
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Rakesh Sharma, a former Indian Air Force pilot and astronaut, is the first Indian citizen to travel to space. In 1984, he flew aboard the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz T-11 as part of an intercosmic flight programme between the Soviet Union and India.
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During his eight-day stay on the Salyut 7 space station, Sharma conducted scientific experiments and communicated with the former PM Indira Gandhi. He uttered the historic words – “Sare jahan se accha (the best in the world),” answering her question on how India looked from up there.
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Chawla was the first woman of Indian-origin to travel to space. She was born in Haryana, India and moved to the United States in 1982 to pursue aerospace engineering.
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In 1995, she became a member of NASA and went on her first space mission in 1997. She was also a crew member on the STS-107 mission in 2003, which ended tragically when the spacecraft Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry, resulting in the loss of all seven crew members, including Chawla.
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Sunita Williams is a famous American astronaut of Indian descent. She has made significant contributions to space exploration, and accomplished several feats during her career as an astronaut.
Credit: NASA
She has flown on two space missions and has spent a total of 322 days in space. During the time, she set several records, including the record for the longest spaceflight by a woman and the most spacewalks by a woman.
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Sirisha Bandla, an astronaut and aeronautical engineer of Indian descent, is employed at Virgin Galactic. She was born in Andhra Pradesh, India, and grew up in Houston, Texas.
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Sirisha was part of the crew of Virgin Galactic's Unity 22 mission and flew into space in July 2021, becoming the third Indian-origin woman to do so after Chawla and Williams.
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Though she has not gone into space, Dr Swati Mohan, an Indian-American aerospace engineer and scientist, was the lead guidance and controls operations engineer for NASA's Mars 2020 mission in February 2021, ensuring the successful landing of the spacecraft on the Martian surface.
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Mohan got interested in space after watching Star Trek at the age of nine and later decided to switch from their original plan of becoming a pediatrician. She got her master's degree and PhD in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT.
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