Astronaut designate Group Capt Prasanth Balakrishnan one among four picked for Gaganyaan Mission
Astronaut designate Group Capt Prasanth Balakrishnan one among four picked for Gaganyaan Mission
Notably,Astronaut designate Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan of Nemmara, Pallakad District, Kerala, is one among the four astronaut designates picked by PM Modi while in Kerala today
Malayalam actress Lena took to her Instagram to post that she is married to Group Captain Prasanth and this is an historic moment of pride for our country, Kerala and more so for her.
She went on to add that, she had been waiting for this announcement and to inform that she married Prasanth on January 17, 2024 in a traditional ceremony through an arranged marriage.
Prasanth was commissioned on December 19, 1998 in the fighter stream of IAF. He is a Cat A Flying Instructor and a test pilot with approximately 3,000 hours of flying experience. He has flown a variety of aircraft, including Su-30 MKI, MiG- 21, MiG-29, Hawk, Dornier and An-32.
He is also an alumnus of the United States Staff College and a DS at DSSC, Wellington and FIS, Tambaram. He also commanded a premier fighter, Su-30 Sqn.
Gaganyaan Astronaut designate Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair (left) is one of the four astronaut designates who will fly to low-Earth orbit as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Gaganyaan.
Gaganyaan Astronaut designate Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, one of the four astronaut designates who will fly to low-Earth orbit as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Gaganyaan is the son of a retired engineer and comes from a village in Kerala’s Palakkad.
His two brothers are settled abroad and his sister lives in Thrissur, Kerala. Prasanth joined the NDA while he was pursuing engineering at NSS Engineering College, Palakkad.
PM Modi later bestowed ‘astronaut wings’ to the astronaut-designates at a function held at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, where he reviewed the progress of Ganganyaan.
Apart from Prasanth, Angad Prathap, Ajit Krishnan and Shubanshu Shukla have been selected to be the astronauts on India’s first crewed mission to space.
News Edit K.V.Raman
