Rakesh Sharma
Rakesh Sharma is an Indian Air Force pilot, test pilot, and the first Indian citizen to travel to space. His Soyuz T-11 mission remains one of the defining moments in India's human-spaceflight history.
- Born
- January 13, 1949
- Died
- N/A
- Birthplace
- Patiala, Punjab,India
Flights
1
Spacewalks
N/A
EVA time
N/A
In space
7 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes
Bio
Sharma joined the Indian Air Force in 1970 and flew combat missions in the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War. He later became a test pilot and was selected for the Soviet-Indian Intercosmos mission after a joint selection process between India and the Soviet Union.
He launched on Soyuz T-11 in April 1984 with Yuri Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov and spent nearly eight days aboard Salyut 7. His work included biomedical, remote-sensing, and materials experiments, including observations focused on India. Salyut 7 is the station assignment inside that mission.