Honoured to be part of India's space history: Capt. Gopichand Thotakura

New Delhi, Aug 26 (IANS) Honoured to be part of India’s space history, said Capt. Gopichand Thotakura, who in May became the first Indian ever to tour the edge of space on Blue Origin's crewed flight mission, on Monday.

Speaking exclusively to IANS, Thotakura said he is excited for the next generation of Indians who will push the boundaries of space.

The Vijayawada-born pilot is also the second Indian to visit space, after Rakesh Sharma's historic flight on Russia’s Soyuz T-11 spacecraft in 1984.

“I feel very honoured to be a part of this country's history in trying to send more people to space, whether it's through Blue Origin or another organisation,” Thotakura said.

“I'm very excited for the next generation to take it forward, and really push the boundaries of space,” he told IANS.

After Rakesh Sharma, three people of Indian origin reached space -- Kalpana Chawla (1997), Sunita Williams (2006), and Raja Chari (2021) as NASA astronauts.

Earlier this year in May, Thotakura flew to space on an 11-minute flight, above the Karman line -- an internationally recognised boundary of space that lies 100 km above the Earth's surface.

The seventh human flight mission by the Jeff Bezos-owned company also carried: 90-year-old Ed Dwight, Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, and Carol Schaller.

Thotakura has always had an interest in the skies, a passion that was kindled at the age of 8 when he visited a KLM plane cockpit.

On achieving the remarkable feat years later, he told IANS that “it’s not about the age, it’s really about trying to achieve what you want to dream, and if you can dream it, then you can do it”.

In an earlier interaction with IANS, Thotakura had vouched for the Indian space sector’s “endless potential” which was demonstrated with the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon’s South Pole.

“Space is not the limit anymore, we can reach far beyond what any other country has already reached. And what you saw with Chandrayaan is just a small example”.

Meanwhile, ISRO is set to launch Gaganyaan mission -- the country’s first crewed flight to space -- in 2025. The mission will carry three Indians to space.

India also aims to set up a space station -- Bharatiya Antariksha Station (BAS) -- by 2035 and land astronauts on the Moon by 2040.