India will share Gaganyaan feats with world: ISRO astronaut Angad Pratap

Group Captain Angad Pratap, one of the four astronauts selected for India’s maiden human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, on Friday talked about his journey of becoming an astronaut and getting to represent the entire humanity.

During a panel discussion at the Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX)-2025, Pratap said he had served in the Indian Air Force (IAF) for 16 years, and did not know a lot about the astronaut community when he had applied for the selection.

“But I knew that I would become a humble human being and represent entire humanity if I could become an astronaut. In the end, I would become more human,” he said.

He added that he had an inkling of having a bright opportunity to develop capabilities academically and learn a lot about collaborating with people across all kinds and religions.

Pratap further said that it indeed was a big thing for him to be a part of the space programme, which is being single-handedly spearheaded by India. “Whatever we achieve in this journey, we want to share with the world. The Indian Space Research Organisation has telescoped a lot of activities, wherein we can see a human spacecraft programme going on, docking being proven. Meanwhile, capabilities to go to the moon and come back is in progress. We also have Bhartiya Antriksh Station (BAS) programme being built in parallel and to top it up the next generation launch vehicle, which will be able to carry heavier load and pave bigger paths for space technology, underway,” Pratap elaborated.

Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma (retd), who was the first Indian to go to space, said it had been 40 years since he went to space. “Today, India is prepared to see Angad and his colleagues in space. This is part of the success that ISRO has achieved in these years,” he said.

Elaborating on his key takeaway in space, Sharma said, “Everybody who has been to space has experienced the overview effect. On the first day, you look at your country and see there are no boundaries. You see earth as a single entity and then you see the ongoing degradation, which wakes you to environmental degradation.”

“I saw a part of the Myanmar forest going in flames and the plume of smoke was moving east across many other countries,” he recalled.