New Delhi: Forty years have passed since Rakesh Sharma, Indian cosmonaut, soared into space on April 3, 1984. Sharma is the first Indian to fly into space on board the Soviet Rocket Soyuz T-11. Ahead of his space journey, he had spent a week working at the Salyut-7 Orbital Station. 

Expressing joy over the historic feat, he said “these 40 years have been extremely productive for our country.”

“I was just 35 when I had the chance to fly into space after having trained at Star City. And 40 years have passed... These 40 years have been extremely productive for our country and our relationship with Russia because our four astronaut designates, who are shortly getting ready to go up into space, were trained at the same place where I received my training," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

“The current crop of four has received the same kind of training as I did... Primarily because, apart from technology, the human being hasn't changed. The way we condition the human body to face the vigours of space travel hasn't changed," he added.

Meanwhile, the photo exhibition on "The 40 years of the first flight of an Indian cosmonaut" was inaugurated at the Russian House in Chennai as part of the celebration of space exploration, on Wednesday. The exhibition will be on display for the public till April 18.

Those who participated in the event include Murthy Remilla, Head, Project Management, Human Spaceflight Group, Gaganyaan Programme of India, URSC, ISRO, Jayakumar Venkatesan, CEO and Human Spaceflight Researcher, Harpy Aerospace, India, IK Lenin Tamilkovan, Executive Director, Tamilnadu Science and Technology Centre Chennai, and Oleg N Avdeev, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Chennai.