As of 2025, six people of origin have been in space. The first astronaut of the Indian nationality, in space was Rakesh Sharma on Soyuz T-11 as a part of the Interkosmos program in 1984. Three astronauts – Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, Raja Chari – flew as NASA astronauts. Williams with three spaceflights, have the record of most number of spaceflights by an astronaut of Indian origin. Williams and Chari are the only astronauts to have made long-term spaceflights.
Sirisha Bandla is the first and only Indian-born woman to make a suborbital flight as a space tourist, which she did on Virgin Galactic Unity 22 on July 11, 2021.
NASA Astronauts Orbital
No. Image NameBirth date Ancestry Birth Comment Missions(Launch date) Time in Space1Kalpana ChawlaMarch 17, 1962First Indian American in space and First Indian origin woman in Space. Died on the Columbia. STS-87 (November 19, 1997) STS-107 (January 16, 2003) 31 days, 14 hours, 54 minutes2Sunita WilliamsSeptember 19, 1965Served on ISS Expedition 14/15, Expedition 32/33 and Expedition 71/72. Second female commander of ISS. First female astronaut to fly on an orbital spacecraft's maiden flight, i.e., Boeing Starliner. STS-116/117 (December 9, 2006) Soyuz TMA-05M (July 15, 2012) Starliner Crewed Flight Test/SpaceX Crew-9 (June 5, 2024) 608 days, 20 minutes3Raja ChariJune 24, 1977Selected in 2017 to NASA Astronaut Group 22. SpaceX Crew-3 (November 11, 2021) 176 days4Anil MenonOctober 15, 1976Selected in 2021 to NASA Astronaut Group 23. Soyuz MS-29 (March 2026)(planned) N/A
Space Tourists Suborbital
No. Image Name Ancestry Birth Comment Missions(Launch date) Time in Space 1 Sirisha Bandla Second Indian-born woman to fly to space, First Indian-American space tourist. Virgin Galactic Unity 22(July 11, 2021) 14 minutes, 17 seconds 2 Andy Sadhwani Principal Propulsion Engineer at SpaceX Galactic 07(June 8, 2024) 15 minutes, 10 seconds 3 Tushar Mehta a MIT graduate and Particle Physicist Blue Origin NS-30(February 25, 2025) 10 minutes, 8 seconds 4 Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal Indian-born real-estate investor, adventurer and private pilot. Blue Origin NS-34(August 3, 2025) 10 minutes, 8 seconds
References
External links ISRO