From fighter pilots to face of Gaganyan: Astronaut designates for India's maiden human spaceflight

New Delhi: "I have cast my feet in cement," India's astronaut-designate Angad Pratap jokingly tells his colleague Ajit Krishnan as people queued up to click selfies with the duo at a conference here last week.

The selection of Pratap and Krishnan as astronauts-designate, along with Shubhanshu Shukla and Prashanth Nair, for India's maiden human spaceflight project - Gaganyaan - have made them heroes overnight.

Shukla is scheduled to travel to the International Space Station as part of the ISRO-NASA joint mission on May 29.

Pratap and Krishnan, both fighter pilots with the Indian Air Force, were at the three-day Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) organised by the International Astronautical Federation here last week.

Krishnan has rejoined the Indian Air Force after his astronaut training, while Pratap is pursuing his PhD and is on study leave.

"Their training will begin again 12 months before the Gaganyaan mission," a senior ISRO official said.

From being fighter pilots in the Indian Air Force, to being the public face of the Gaganyaan project has been a completely new experience for the astronaut designates.

"Your life does become a little public. People know you. Yes, but after a certain amount of time, it just subsides and grows on you because you start doing this on a regular basis and it's like a normal activity," Pratap told PTI here.

"There are a lot of things that I learn from those interactions. I get to know about the dreams of a lot of people. I get a lot of inspiration from a lot of other people," he said.

India's first human spaceflight - Gaganyaan - is expected to be launched early 2027 with ISRO planning to send two astronauts in low earth orbit in a spacecraft for a few days and bring them back to earth safely.

The transition from being a test pilot to being an astronaut-designate was "challenging and exciting" for Pratap.

"Inside these missions, there are a lot of unexpected events that can take place. Test pilots are used to countering those scenarios because as test pilots, we fly inside unproven aircraft which are just assembled for the first time," said Pratap, who has undergone basic training as an astronaut in Russia as well as the Astronaut Training Centre in Bengaluru.

Pratap said the training programme for astronauts was extensive and covered psychological, physical, and behavioral aspects, preparing to cope with the unique challenges of space.

"You need to be behaviourally trained on how to give your best in spite of the worst staring in your eyes," he said, referring to the challenges during a spaceflight.

Pratap said he was aware that he was representing the hopes of scientists, technicians, engineers, and the countless individuals at ISRO, academic institutes, and supporting industries.

"We carry their hopes when we travel to space. When the Prime Minister announced our names as astronaut-designate, it felt like having the responsibility of 1.4 billion on our shoulders," Pratap said.

Pratap said his colleague Shubhanshu Shukla will be among the first of the four, who trained as astronauts, to travel on a space mission in a few weeks.