New Delhi:

Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Rakesh Sharma, the only Indian in space, is happy to welcome more Indian astronauts to join the elite space fleet as India prepares for Gaganyaan mission club.

Gaganyan is the country’s first manned space mission, in which a crew of up to three members will be launched into low-Earth orbit and brought back to Earth at the end of the space flight. It won’t last more than a week, but will probably only last a day initially.

In an interview with NDTV science editor Pallava Bagla, Mr Sharma recalled the space flight that gave India one of its first space achievements.

“I think it’s very exciting. It’s all being done for the first time. There’s a lot of expectations. And I have to say, I’m disappointed, mostly because what I saw was way beyond what I expected. So I’m very excited about it. These sites are really not prepared for me to take advantage of this, like we do in space,” he said.

As India gears up for the Gaganyan mission, the 75-year-old former Indian Air Force pilot’s excitement has not faded.

Read | Indian Prime Minister reveals 4 Gaganya astronauts: “will lead 1.4 billion Indians into space”

“I am very excited that today, Gaganyaan is ready and we are on the cusp of really creating another historic moment. I believe it will become even more meaningful because we will be launching an Indian launcher here in India from Spaceport India boarded the spacecraft,” Mr. Sharma said.

He also praised the mission as being entirely indigenous, saying: “It’s really something to look forward to and celebrate because I’m very confident, God willing, that this will be a very successful flight.”

Exactly 40 years ago, on April 3, 1984, Mr. Sharma wrote history by becoming the first Indian to reach outer space aboard a Soviet rocket Soyuz T-11. When then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked what India looked like from space, he replied quoting the poet Iqbal: “better than the whole world (Better than the whole world)”.

Asked if he felt the same 40 years later, he told New Delhi TV, “Oh, yes, yes. Of course.”