Today, we celebrate the birthday of the first Indian in space.

Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma (Ashoka Chakra) was born on 13th January 1949 in Patiala.

Rakesh Sharma joined Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov as the Soyuz T-11 spacecraft took of on 2nd April 1984 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic.

All their space suits (seen on the previous tweet) had the Russian and Indian flags on them, along with the Surya riding a golden chariot drawn by seven divine horses.

The Soyuz T-11 docked and transferred the three member crew to the Salyut 7 Orbital Station.

Sharma spent 7 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes aboard the Salyut 7 during which the team conducted scientific and technical studies which included forty-three experimental sessions.

The crew held a press conference with Soviet and Indian leaders. Indira Gandhi asked Rakesh Sharma how India looked from space.

His poetic reply floored everyone.

*Spoiler alert*

Rakesh Sharma quoted Iqbal and said "saare jahaan se achha".

Pretty sure Indira Gandhi said "awwww" when she heard that.

With his journey, India became the 14th nation to send a human into outer space.

This was the first time that Soviet Cosmonauts experienced different cuisine while in space.

Mysore-based Defence Food Research Laboratory created dishes such as vegetable pulao, alu chholey and sooji halva for easy consumption in space.

Picture Sharma, Malyshev and Strekalov huddled together, opening their tiffin boxes and sharing food from their respective countries while staring into the vast expanse of space. <3 <3

Along with food Sharma carried portraits of Indira Gandhi, President Zail Singh, Defence Minister Venkataraman and some soil from Rajghat.

When Air Chief Marshal Dilbagh Singh spoke to him, Sharma said proudly: "Sir, for the Indian Air Force the sky is no longer the limit."

There are some amazing things Rakesh Sharma did in his short time in space.

He took several aerial photographs of India which saved our country two years worth of effort.

Rakesh Sharma sighted a huge forest fire in Central Burma covering more than 30 sq km and reported it to Mission Control Centre. The Burmese Government was in turn promptly informed about it.

After breakfast each day, Sharma squatted like a sadhu with velcro zippers fastening him to the spacecraft to prevent him from levitating. He then did yoga for 10 minutes to test its efficacy for keeping fit in space.

Definitely the first recorded instance of space Yoga.

Yoga was done to see whether it could overcome the adverse effects of weakening muscles caused by weightlessness in space and Indian scientists on ground were encouraged by preliminary results.

On one of his passes over India, Sharma said ecstatically: "As we moved from south to north the blue of the ocean merged with the green of the plains and the view turned brown over central India and into a glorious beauty over the ice caps of the Himalayas."

He mused later: "From here there are no borders. The whole planet is one. It is difficult to understand why there is so much tension in the world. It looks very peaceful from up here."

Lessons we all can learn and try to live by in these testing times.

Ravish Malhotra was designated as Rakesh Sharma's stand-by.

He never made it to space, though he underwent all the training that Sharma himself did.

The idea of a joint manned space flight was first suggested by Leonid Brezhnev when he visited India in December 1980. India accepted the offer and set aside Rs 1.7 crore for the project nicknamed 'Pawan'.

Space travel is no cakewalk. Do you have any interesting space travel facts / stories to share? Let us know and we'll RT you.

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