All of them are Indian Air Force officers. The first, and so far, only Indian astronaut was also an Air Force officer – Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma.
The four officers who have been selected for further training in Thiruvananthapuram are:
Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair,
Group Captain Ajit Krishnan,
Group Captain Angad Pratap, and
Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla.
The Indian Space Travel program – a quick overview
India is currently testing the crafts that will be used to take three Indian astronauts to a spot 400 kms high (250 miles). They will stay in space for three days and then return.
Late this year, Vyom Mitra, a humanoid built in India, will travel to space. This is one of the pre-tests before the Gaganyaan mission in 2025.
The astronauts were selected in 2019 and sent to Russia for the first level of training. That training was completed in 2021 and since then, they have been training with various agencies to prepare themselves for space travel and stay.
If Gaganyaan succeeds, India will become the fourth country to be able to send people to space – after US, USSR, and China. (China joined this club in 2003).