Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair

Some Lesser Known Facts About Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair

• He moved to India from Kuwait, where his father had a job, following the outbreak of a war between Kuwait and Iraq.

• At Chinmaya Vidyalaya, where he enrolled after coming to India, Prasanth formed a basked ball team. As per his teachers, he generated likeness towards the sport during his time in Kuwait. He played basketball for his squadron at the NDA as well.

  

• He was a meritorious student and scored 455 out of 500 marks in his class 12th board exams.

  

• After completing schooling, Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair appeared and scored well in medical and engineering entrance exams. However, he decided to pursue engineering at NSS College of Engineering after being influenced by his engineer brothers.

• He left his engineering studies mid-way to join the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla, Pune.

  

• He reported to the Air Force Academy (AFA) in Hyderabad after completing his military training at the NDA. There, he underwent training to fly fighter jets.

• As per some sources, he joined the IAF as a flying officer in 1999; however, others state that he joined in 1998.

• Prasanth has more than 3000 hours of flying experience in different warplanes such as Sukhoi Su-30MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, BAE Systems Hawk, Dornier 228, and Antonov An-32.

• He has held the posts of a directing staff member at the Wellington-based Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) and flying instructor at the Chennai-based Flying Instructors School (FIS).

• Following his promotion to the rank of group captain, Prasanth commanded a squadron of the Sukhoi-30MKIs.

• In 2016, he piloted the Sukhoi aircraft for the test launch of the initial air-launched version of the Brahmos missile. Following this, India joined a select group of nations with the ability to deploy nuclear warheads from air, sea, and land.

• In 2018, Balakrishnan was among the 30 IAF pilots who were initially shortlisted to go to space under the Gaganyaan project of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2025.

• Under the Gaganyaan mission, ISRO has planned on stationing 4 astronauts 400 kilometres above sea level for 3 days and then bring them back to Earth. It is supposed to take place in 2025.

• After undergoing a tough selection process, only 12 pilots, out of the 30, remained in the race to become astronauts by mid-2019.

• Thereafter, four IAF pilots, including Group Captain Angad Pratap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, were selected to become ISRO’s first vyomnauts (a word derived for astronauts from Sanskrit).

  

• Balakrishnan, being the most experienced pilot, was made the team commander.

• The initial training of the selected team to become astronauts was done at the Bengaluru-based Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM).

• They then went to Russia, where the team received advanced training in technical and other aspects of working in space in a spacecraft at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. At the same centre, India’s first astronaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma received training in 1984.

• Balakrishnan stayed in shape during astronaut training by practising yoga, exercising at a gym, and swimming regularly.

  

• After training in Russia for 18 months, the team came back to India.

• They underwent additional training and evaluation process at the Human Space Flight Centre in Bengaluru.

• The training of Group Captain Nair, Group Captain Pratap, Group Captain Krishnan, and Wing Commander Shukla ended in February 2024.

• On 27 February 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded astronaut wings to these officers.

  

• On the same date, Lena Kumar uploaded an Instagram post in which she revealed that she and Balakrishnan did not reveal their marriage due to security concerns. She also revealed that it was an arranged marriage.

  

• In 2025, Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair’s team will become the first group of Indian astronauts to be launched into space from India.

• Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair lost 25 kilograms of weight due to the extremely difficult astronaut training. Before joining the training, he used to weigh around 75 kilos.

• He loves to meditate to maintain his mental health.

• In August 2024, ISRO signed an agreement with Axiom Space Inc. to send Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair and Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom-4 mission. Nair was selected as a backup, while Shukla was chosen as the prime astronaut.