Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian citizen to have ventured out in space, celebrated his 67th birthday last month. Here are some interesting and lesser known facts about the man who made his country proud. Born on January 13, 1949, Sharma originally belongs to Punjab and completed his education from Hyderabad. After successfully passing from the National Defence Academy, Sharma was commissioned into the Indian Air Force as a test pilot.

As a test pilot, he became an important member of war operations that were conducted against Pakistan.

On September 20, 1982, he was elected to travel into space as a cosmonaut as part of a joint programme by ISRO and the Soviet Intercosmos space programme.

On April 2 in 1984, he made his flight aboard the Soyuz T-11 and became the first Indian to achieve this feat.

The duration of his stay in outer space lasted 21 hours and 40 minutes.

He conducted scientific and technical studies wherein he was mainly involved in bio-medicine and remote sensing.