Draft:Prasanth Nair (astronaut candidate)

Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair is an Indian Indian Air Force test pilot. Nair is one of the four astronaut candidates for the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme (Gaganyaan).

Air Force career
Prashanth joined the National Defense Academy (NDA) while he was a student at NSS Engineering College, Palakkad studying engineering. He is a recipient of the Sword of Honour at the Air Force Academy.

Astronaut career
Nair was included in the astronaut selection process in 2019 by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), an organization under the Indian Air Force. Later, he was shortlisted in the final four by IAM and ISRO. In 2020, He went to Russia for basic training with three other selected Vyomanauts. Basic training was completed in 2021. He then returned to India and attended training at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bangalore.

His name as a member of the astronaut team was first officially announced in public on 27 February 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the names of the astronaut team members for India's first space mission at ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.

Personal life
On 27 February 2024, it was announced that Nair had married Malayalam film actress Lena on 17 January 2024.