Angad Pratap Wiki, Age, Caste, Wife, Family, Biography & More

Angad Pratap is an Indian Air Force officer and astronaut. He made headlines in 2024 when he was selected to be a crew member on the Gaganyaan Mission, India’s first human space flight program.

Wiki/Biography

Dwivedi Angad Pratap Maitrey was born on Saturday, 17 July 1982 (age 41 years; as of 2023) in Allahabad (now Prayagraj), Uttar Pradesh. His zodiac sign is Cancer. He pursued an M.Tech from IISc Bangalore. He passed out from the National Defence Academy (NDA) in 2003. In 2024, along with their astronaut training at ISRO, Angad Pratap enrolled in the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to pursue an MTech.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 7″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

Not much is known about his parents and siblings.

Wife & Children

His wife is a former IAF officer.

Career

Indian Air Force

On 18 December 2004, he was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in December 2004. He became a Wing Commander in December 2017 and was later promoted to Group Captain. He is also a flying instructor and a test pilot, with 2,000 hours of flying time. He has flown many different types of aircraft, such as the Su-30MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

In 2018, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shortlisted 30 veteran pilots to be part of the Gaganyaan mission. Scheduled for launch in 2025, the Gaganyaan mission is India’s first crewed space mission that aims to send four astronauts into a low Earth orbit for three days, and safely return them by landing in the Indian Ocean. Following a challenging selection process, only 12 pilots remained from the initial 30 candidates to become astronauts by mid-2019. Finally, four astronauts — Group Captains Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Angad Pratap, Ajit Krishnan, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, were chosen for the Gaganyaan Mission. The initial space training of the crew members took place at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) in Bengaluru. Then, they were sent to Russia for advanced space training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

They returned to India after a 13-month-long training. They were further evaluated and trained at the Human Space Flight Centre in Bengaluru. Their space training ended in February 2024. On 27 February 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave astronaut wings to the crew members of the Gaganyaan Mission.