Group Captain Group captain (Gp Capt or G/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British influence. Group cap ...

Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair is a qualified Indian flight instructor and a

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

in the

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the air force, air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial warfare during armed conflicts. It was officially established on 8 Octob ...

. Nair is one of the four designated astronauts trained by

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...

to fly aboard the

Gaganyaan Gaganyaan (,, from Sanskrit: , "celestial" and , "craft, vehicle") is an Indian List of crewed spacecraft, crewed orbital spacecraft intended to be the formative spacecraft of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. The spacecraft is being des ...

crewed flight.

Early life

Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair was born in Nemmara, Palakkad, Kerala on 26 August 1976 to Vilambil Balakrishnan Nair, a retired engineer. Nair spent a portion of his childhood in

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

but had to return to India after the

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, codenamed Project 17, began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country for the next seven months ...

in 1990. After his return, Nair attended the Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Pallavur and ranked as one of the toppers in the

SSLC The Secondary School Leaving Certificate (commonly referred to as SSLC) is a certification obtained by a student on successful completion of an examination at the end of study at the secondary schooling level in India. The SSLC is obtained o ...

examinations in the year 1992. After completing school, Nair attended the NSS College of Engineering for 7 months before appearing in the UPSC NDA exam.

Indian Air Force career

Nair was commissioned in the Indian Air Force in December 1998. He specialized in flying the Sukhoi Su-30 MKI but also had experience flying the

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet aircraft, jet fighter aircraft, fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan, Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB, Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nicknames in ...

and the An-32. He attended the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington and the Flying Instructors School, Tambaram to become a Category A Flight Instructor in the Indian Air force.

ISRO astronaut career

Training

Nair became part of the astronaut selection initiative launched in 2019 by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), an institution operating under the

as part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. He was eventually chosen among the top four candidates after rigorous evaluation by IAM in collaboration with

. Following his selection, he proceeded to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

to undertake foundational astronaut training at the

Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for tra ...

alongside the other selected crew members. After finishing the basic training course in 2021, he returned to India for further instruction at the Astronaut Training Facility based in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. Around the same period, Nair also earned a

Master of Technology A Master of Engineering (abbreviated MEng, ME, M.E. or M.Eng.) is a professional master's degree in the field of engineering. International variations Australia In Australia, the Master of Engineering degree is a research degree requiring com ...

degree in

Aerospace Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

from

IISc Bangalore The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The institute was established in 1909 wi ...

Axiom Mission 4

He was selected as backup for

Shubhanshu Shukla Indian Air Force ranks and insignia, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is an Indian Air Force test pilot, engineer and ISRO astronaut. He is the first of List of Indian astronauts#ISRO astronaut candidates for Indian Human Spaceflight Programme, f ...

on a private mission to the ISS called Axiom-4 and selected for training at

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight in Houston, Texas (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight controller, flight control are conducted. ...

Gaganyaan

On 27 February 2024, Nair was named as the commander of the 4 member crew designated for the Gaganyaan-4 mission developed by

, the first human space mission of India by their own, which is going to take place in 2026.

Personal life

Nair has been married to Indian actress Lena since January 2024.

References

{{commons category 1976 births Living people Indian astronauts Indian Air Force officers Indian military aviators Indian test pilots Indian Space Research Organisation people Air Force Academy (India) alumni United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni Indian Institute of Science alumni People from Palakkad district Indian expatriates in Kuwait Defence Services Staff College alumni Axiom Space Gaganyaan Malayali people