NEW DELHI: Indian astronaut-designate and IAF Air Commodore Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair (call sign ‘Papa’), one of the four Gagannauts selected for India’s first human spaceflight mission Gaganyaan, on Monday received the Kirti Chakra from President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan.Kirti Chakra is India’s second-highest peacetime gallantry award and recognises courage, devotion to duty and distinguished service to the nation.Nair was the backup pilot for the June 2025 Axiom mission-4 to the International Space Station (ISS). Nair, a highly decorated IAF test pilot, completed rigorous training at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston alongside primary astronaut Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who finally went to ISS for 18 days. Commissioned into IAF fighter wing in Dec 1998, Nair has logged over 3,000 hours of flight time across diverse aircraft like Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk and AN-32. He has served as a category-A flying instructor and commanding officer of a Su-30 squadron and graduated at the top of his class from the US Air Force Air Command and Staff College in Alabama.In 2019, Nair, along with Shukla and two other IAF pilots, was selected by Isro for training at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Moscow, and trained there for a year.Besides the honour for Nair, President Murmu awarded six other Kirti Chakras, including two posthumously; 15 Vir Chakras, including three posthumously; and 29 Shaurya Chakras, including one posthumously, to personnel of defence forces, central armed police forces and state and UT police during phase-I of the Defence Investiture Ceremony 2026 at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
