‘Saare Jahan Se Accha’ said our 1st spaceman Rakesh Sharma after successfully immortalizing history in Space Science
New Delhi, January 13: Soyuz T-11 spacecraft was set to leave Earth which had Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov - and our Indian cosmonaut, Rakesh Sharma. Then exactly nine minutes after blast-off at a height of 200 km above the earth, the spacecraft was injected into space, free from the clutches of earth's gravity, he had become India's first man in space. History has saved a page of Indian Rakesh Sharma who was the first spaceman of India. Happiest Birthday to this inspiring soul Rakesh Sharma.
Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma was the 138th cosmonaut in the world. He was the 11th foreign cosmonaut to fly with the Soviet spacemen. India thus is the 14th country to send her cosmonaut into space in a spaceship. All the three spacemen orbited around the earth 120 times before they could return to the earth. They parachuted back on earth on the 11th April 1984.
Born on 13th January 2018, in Patiala, Punjab Rakesh Sharma was also an Indian military pilot and cosmonaut. In 1970 Sharma joined the Indian Air Force as a pilot. He flew 21 combat missions in a MiG-21 in the Bangladesh war of 1971. In 1982 he was selected as a cosmonaut for a joint Soviet-Indian spaceflight. On April 3, 1984, he flew on board Soyuz T-11 with two Soviet cosmonauts, commander Yury Malyshev and flight engineer Gennady Strekalov, to the space station Salyut 7. In a space, Sharma performed experiments that included photography of India from space and exercises to study the effects of yoga on the body during weightlessness. The mission lasted nearly eight days, and Sharma and his crewmates landed in Kazakhstan on April 11. In 1987 he joined the Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics as its Chief Test Pilot. He left Hindustan Aeronautics in 2001 and became Chairman of the Board of Automated Workflow, a process-management company based in Bangalore (Bengaluru).
On his success, the President of our country congratulated all the three cosmonauts in this great pleasure in extending my warm felicitations and greeting and the Indian friends participating in the space venture.”
Our worthy Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who, also sent them wishes on her own behalf and on behalf of an Indian nation, said with great satisfaction, “Months of intensive planning and efforts have come out success-full”. While in space he was asked by the then Prime Minister about his country. His reply was “sare jahanse achha”.
After returning from space, he was awarded the position of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Indian government also honoured him with Ashok Chakra in his highest award (times of peace), Ashoka Chakra was given to two more members of the Soviet Union, Malshev and Strekalov, who went in space along with Rakesh Sharma.
The first Indian to travel to space, Rakesh Sharma, as soon as he flew for space, he made history. He is an inspiration for every Indian today.