Background
On January 13th 1949, Rakesh Sharma was born in the well-known district of Patiala located in the state of Punjab.
On January 13th 1949, Rakesh Sharma was born in the well-known district of Patiala located in the state of Punjab.
As a young boy, he enrolled at St. George's Grammar School in Hyderabad and received his early education from there.
Rakesh proved to be a focused and dedicated student and by 1970, he was commissioned into the Indian Air Force to become a pilot.
Sharma joined the Indian Air Force and progressed rapidly through the ranks.
Sharma, then a Squadron Leader and pilot with the Indian Air Force embarked on a historic mission in 1984 as part of a joint space program between the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Soviet Intercosmos space program, and spent eight days in space aboard the Salyut 7 space station. Launched along with two Soviet cosmonauts aboard Soyuz T-11 on the 3 April 1984, Sharma was 35-year-old. Rakesh, along with the Soviet Cosmonauts, spend 7 days, 21 hours and 40 minutes in space and board the Salyut-7 space station, a low earth orbit space station, conducting an earth observation programme concentrating on India. He also did life sciences and materials processing experiments, including silicium fusing tests.
In 2006, Sharma took part in a conference involving a gathering of the best scientists of ISRO, who were responsible for one of India's space missions. Currently, he has retired from his services and is now the chairperson for the Automated Workflow.