Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair is an officer in the Indian Air Force (IAF), a vyomanaut (derived from the Sanskrit term for astronaut) and a fighter pilot. He made headlines in February 2024 when the Indian government officially announced him as commander of the four-man team of astronauts on Gaganyaan, India’s human spaceflight programme. The crew included Group Captain Angad Pratap, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan and Lieutenant Colonel Shubhanshu Shukla.
Wiki/Biography
Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair was born on Thursday, August 26, 1976, in Thiruvazhiyad village, Palakkad district, Kerala, India (47 years; as of 2023). However, some sources claim that his birthplace was Nemala in Palakkad district of the Indian state of Kerala. His zodiac sign is Virgo. He completed his education until eighth grade in Kuwait, where his father had worked. However, after Iraq invaded Kuwait, the family moved to India. He completed his 12th grade in 1994 from Chinmaya Vidyalaya School in Palakkad. He was the top student of the school in grade 12 and scored 455 points out of 500.
Photos of Chinmaya Vidyalaya Honor Plaque
Photos of Balakrishnan Nair taken at school
In 1994, he enrolled in NSS College of Engineering, Palakkad, and started pursuing Bachelor of Technology in Instrumentation and Control Engineering. At the same time, he began preparing for the entrance examination to the National Defense Academy. After passing the NDA examination, he left engineering and joined the college. After three years of training at the NDA in Khadakwasla, Pune, he reported to the Air Force Academy (AFA) in Hyderabad, where he was trained as a fighter pilot.
Photo taken when Nair was at the National Defense Academy (NDA)
After completing his formal training, he joined the Indian Air Force as a Flying Officer. As an Indian Air Force officer, he attended many prestigious military colleges such as the Defense Staff College (DSSC), Wellington, and the Air Force Command and Staff College (ACSC), Montgomery, Alabama, USA. He graduated from ACSC with a first class honors degree. After being selected as an astronaut, he enrolled at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, where he pursued a master’s degree in engineering.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′ 9″
Weight: 50kg
Hair color: Bald
Eye color: dark brown
family
Parents and siblings
His father, Valampil Balakrishnan Nair, is an engineer and retired government official. His mother Koolanghaat Prameela Nair is a housewife. He has two brothers and a sister. His brothers Pradeep Nair and Praveen Nair were engineers and settled outside India. His sister Pratibha lives in Thrissur, Kerala.
P. Balakrishnan Nair with his family
wife and children
His wife Lena Kumar (also spelled Lenaa) is a famous Malayalam film actress and writer. The couple got married on January 17, 2024. The couple has no children.
P. Balakrishnan Nair takes a photo with Lena
Lena revealed her marriage to Nair to the public through an Instagram post on February 27, 2024, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the news. According to her, it was an arranged marriage. Lena also claimed that she kept her marriage to Prasanth secret to avoid any potential interference with his work as an astronaut.
Lena’s Instagram post about her marriage
religion
He believes in Hinduism.
Profession
indian air force
According to some sources, Prasanth Nair joined the army on December 19, 1998, while other sources claim that he joined the army on June 19, 1999. As of 2024, Prasanth has over 3000 hours of flying experience as a Captain on different aircraft such as Sukhoi Su-30MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, BAE Systems Hawk, Dornier 228 and Antonov An-32 . He has also served as an Instructor at DSSC, Wellington and as an Instructor at Flying Instructor School (FIS), Tambaram, Chennai. He also commanded a squadron of the Indian Air Force’s Sukhoi fleet. He was a Category A pilot and test pilot who flew several aircraft into service with the Air Force. In 2016, he test-fired the first air-launched version of the BrahMos missile as a pilot of a Sukhoi aircraft, subsequently making India one of the few countries with the capability to launch nuclear warheads from air, sea and land.
Viomnot
In 2018, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) along with the Air Force selected over 30 senior pilots from the services for the Gaganyan mission. The mission’s goal is to keep astronauts at an altitude of 400 kilometers for three days before bringing them safely back to Earth in 2025.
Photo of Gaganyaan model and scientists working on it
By mid-2019, only 12 of the 30 pilots had been retained, while the rest had been rejected. Subsequently, four candidates were shortlisted: Captain Nair, Captain Pratap, Captain Krishnan and Lieutenant Colonel Shukla. Out of the four, Balakrishnan was appointed as the mission commander. After completing initial space training at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) in Bangalore, India, candidates report to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia for advanced space training. There, they undergo 18 months of training to learn about the technical and other important aspects of working in space.
After the candidates returned to India from Russia, they underwent further assessment and training at the Manned Space Flight Center in Bengaluru. In February 2024, four selected officers of the Indian Air Force completed the space training module, and on February 27, 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pinned astronaut wings to his astronaut uniform.
Balakrishnan with Prime Minister Narendra Modi with his astronaut wings pinned to his chest
As per the agreement between ISRO and Axiom Space Inc. in August 2024, Shubhanshu Shukla has been selected as the primary astronaut and Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair has been selected as the backup astronaut for the Axiom 4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
Honors and Qualifications
Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair was awarded the Sword of Honor at the convocation ceremony held at Air Force Academy (AFA), Hyderabad.
Facts/Trivia
- His name is also spelled Prashant B. Nair.
- Plasanth is an excellent basketball player. According to his school teacher, he learned how to play the game in Kuwait. He introduced the sport at Chinmaya Vidyalaya and formed a team. He also represented his squadron in several NDA basketball games.
- After graduation, Prasanth scored well in the engineering and medical entrance exams. However, motivated by his siblings, he decided to pursue engineering.
- To stay healthy, Balakrishnan regularly did yoga, went to the gym, and swam while training as an astronaut.
Balakrishnan Nair performs yoga
- He has a keen interest in reading.
- Prasanth’s team will become the first team of astronauts to launch from Indian soil in 2025.
- Balakrishnan Nair trained in Russia at the same location where Lieutenant Colonel Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian Air Force man in space, trained in 1984.
Photo of Nair with other selected Indian astronauts during training in Russia
- He likes to eat home-cooked meals made by his mother.
- According to sources, before joining the astronaut training module, Balakrishnan weighed 75 kg. However, due to intense training, he lost 25 kilograms.
- Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair likes to meditate.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education