The article first appeared in The Forbes India on February 28, 2024
On August 23, 2023, Indian became the first nation in the world to successfully perform a soft landing on the lunar south pole with Chandrayaan-3. In another first, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for its first crewed Indian space mission, Gaganyaan. During his trip to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced the names of the astronauts set to crew the spacecraft, all of whom hold ranks as either wing commanders or group captains in the Indian Air Force (IAF) and boast significant experience as test pilots.