Mr. Rakesh Sharma
Astronaut, Former IAF officer

Rakesh Sharma graduated from the National Defence Academy in Dec 1968 and joined the Indian Air Force as a fighter pilot.

He flew 21 Operational Missions on a Mig-21 aircraft during the Indo-Pak War in 1971, before being selected for the Test Pilots Course in 1975 at the Test Pilot’s School of the Indian Air Force’s Aircraft and Systems’ Testing Establishment, Bangalore.

 He served as an Air Force Test Pilot for 15 years before being seconded to the Industry, in 1987. During his Air Force Career, he was selected for the Joint Indo-Soviet Space Mission, 1984, which culminated in an 8 day Near Earth Orbit Space Flight. He was awarded the Ashoka Chakra by the Indian Government; The Hero of The Soviet Union and The Order of Lenin by the erstwhile Soviet Government.

After the space flight, he returned to his test flying career and served as the Chief Project Pilot of ‘Tejas’, India’s Light Combat Aircraft. Later, as the Chief Test Pilot of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), he worked on the indigenous Intermediate Jet Trainer Project. In a flying career spanning 33 years, he spent 24 years testing aircraft, weapons and systems. During this period, he flew 4000 hrs on all front- line fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force, before retiring from test flying in July 2001.

Thereafter he joined the IT Industry in 2001 and headed the Indian Aerospace and Defence business unit of Parametric Technology Corporation, USA. 

Later, he took over as the Chairman of the Board of Candela Labs, an IT company located at Bangalore, till his retirement in 2019.