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NEW DELHI: Indian astronaut-designate and IAF Air Commodore Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair (call motion 'Papa'), 1 of the 4 Gagannauts selected for India’s archetypal quality spaceflight ngo Gaganyaan, connected Monday received the Kirti Chakra from President Droupadi Murmu astatine Rashtrapati Bhavan.Kirti Chakra is India’s second-highest peacetime gallantry grant and recognises courage, devotion to work and distinguished work to the nation.Nair was the backup aviator for the June 2025 Axiom mission-4 to the International Space Station (ISS). Nair, a highly decorated IAF trial pilot, completed rigorous grooming astatine Nasa's Johnson Space Centre successful Houston alongside superior astronaut Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who yet went to ISS for 18 days.
Commissioned into IAF combatant helping successful Dec 1998, Nair has logged implicit 3,000 hours of formation clip crossed divers craft similar Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk and AN-32.
He has served arsenic a category-A flying teacher and commanding serviceman of a Su-30 squadron and graduated astatine the apical of his people from the US Air Force Air Command and Staff College successful Alabama.In 2019, Nair, on with Shukla and 2 different IAF pilots, was selected by Isro for grooming astatine Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre successful Star City, Moscow, and trained determination for a year.
Besides the honour for Nair, President Murmu awarded six different Kirti Chakras, including 2 posthumously; 15 Vir Chakras, including 3 posthumously; and 29 Shaurya Chakras, including 1 posthumously, to unit of defence forces, cardinal equipped constabulary forces and authorities and UT constabulary during phase-I of the Defence Investiture Ceremony 2026 astatine Rashtrapati Bhawan.
