physics

Rakesh Sharma

Rakesh Sharma is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Rakesh Sharma rather than just read about it. In short: Rakesh Sharma (born 13 January 1949) is an Indian cosmonaut and a pilot of the Indian Air Force. He became the first Indian to travel to outer space, when he flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on 3 April 1984 as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme.

Key takeaways

Rakesh Sharma belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rakesh Sharma to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rakesh Sharma from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rakesh Sharma (born 13 January 1949) is an Indian cosmonaut and a pilot of the Indian Air Force. He became the first Indian to travel to outer space, when he flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on 3 April 1984 as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme.

Early and personal life Rakesh Sharma was born on 13 January 1949 in Patiala into a Punjabi family. He attended St. George's Grammar School and graduated from Nizam College, Hyderabad. He joined the National Defence Academy as an air force plebe in July 1966. Sharma married Madhu, and the couple have three children including film director Kapil Sharma.

Career Sharma was commissioned into the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a pilot in 1970. He flew 21 combat missions piloting the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. In 1984, he was promoted to the rank of squadron leader. On 20 September 1982, he was selected for space travel as part of a joint programme between the IAF and the Soviet Interkosmos space agency.

Sharma became the first Indian to travel to outer space when he flew aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 mission, launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic on 3 April 1984. The Soyuz-T spacecraft carried a three member crew, consisting of the ship's commander Yury Malyshev, flight engineer Gennadi Strekalov, and Sharma as a research cosmonaut. It docked with the Salyut 7 orbital station, and Sharma spent 7 days, 21 hours, and 40 minutes aboard the Salyut 7 during which his team conducted scientific and technical studies which included forty-three experimental sessions. His work was mainly in the fields of bio-medicine and remote sensing. The crew landed back on 11 April 1984. After landing, the crew held a joint news conference at Moscow in the presence of Soviet officials and then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi. When Gandhi asked Sharma how India looked from outer space, he replied, "Sare Jahan Se Accha" (better than the whole world), in a reference to a poem by Allama Iqbal. With Sharma's voyage, India became the 14th nation to send a man to outer space. Sharma retired as a wing commander from the IAF and later joined Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in 1987. He initially served as the chief test pilot at the HAL division at Nashik before moving to Bangalore to work as the company's chief test pilot. He retired from flying in 2001.

Awards and decorations Sharma was conferred the honour of the Hero of the Soviet Union upon his return from space, and is the only Indian to have been conferred this honour. India also conferred its highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashoka Chakra, on him and the two Soviet members of his mission, Malyshev and Strekalov. The citation for the Ashoka Chakra reads as follows:

Gazette Notification: No.57-Pres/85 dated 7th May 1985 Date of Award: 3 April 1984

In January 1982, when it was decided that an Indian would go into space on a Soviet space ship, Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma volunteered for this very challenging mission. After a very rigorous selection process, which included a most exacting medical test, he was selected as one of the two cosmonaut candidates from among 150 highly qualified and experienced pilots of the Indian Air Force. After his selection, he underwent training as a cosmonaut at YURI GAGARIN CENTRE in the USSR, where he applied himself with total devotion and dedication and won acclaim from Soviet Space experts. Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma completed a most arduous training schedule, with distinction and with exceptional professionalism. On 3 April 1984, Sqn Ldr Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to orbit in space. He carried out all the scientific experiments planned for the joint Indo-Soviet Space Mission and other tasks assigned to him with great facility and excellence. Sqn Ldr Sharma has not only carved out a place for himself in the space roll of honour but has brought glory and credit to the nation.

Squadron leader Rakesh Sharma has thus displayed most conspicuous daring and courage to become the first Indian to go into space.

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Popular culture A biographical Hindi-language film titled Saare Jahaan Se Achcha (formerly Salute), is under pre-production since 2018.

See also Indian human spaceflight programme Ravish Malhotra Shubhanshu Shukla

References

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rakesh Sharma

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rakesh Sharma claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rakesh Sharma before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rakesh Sharma ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rakesh Sharma

In research: Rakesh Sharma appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rakesh Sharma in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rakesh Sharma is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1949 births, Foreign Heroes of the Soviet Union, Indian Air Force officers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rakesh Sharma outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Rakesh Sharma in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rakesh Sharma means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rakesh Sharma out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rakesh Sharma in simple terms?

Why does Rakesh Sharma matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rakesh Sharma?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rakesh Sharma.