Vijayawada-born to be first Indian space tourist

Vijayawada-born entrepreneur and pilot Gopichand Thotakura is all set to create history as the first Indian to go to space as a tourist. He has been selected to be a part of the six-member crew that Jeff Bezos’ space startup Blue Origin has selected for its New Shepard-25 (NS-25) flight, which will fly beyond the atmosphere of Earth.

Earlier this month Blue Origin announced names of the six persons who would comprise the crew. Thotakura apart, the crew includes Ed Dwight who became the first Black astronaut candidate in 1961, when then US President John F. Kennedy selected him for training at Aerospace Research Pilot School. Dwight, however, never flew to space. The others chosen for the NS25 mission are astronauts Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, and Carol Schaller.

While on Thotakura, his LinkedIn profile says he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Sciences from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, after studying in Bengaluru’s Sarala Birla Academy. Beyond his job profile as a pilot, he co-founded Preserve Life Corp, a Georgia-based holistic wellness and applied health institute. “In addition to flying jets commercially, Gopi pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot. A lifelong traveler, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro,” said a Blue Origin press release.

The Blue Origin NS-25 mission is the first crewed flight since 2022 for the fully-reusable New Shepard rocket. The fleet was grounded after an engine failure led to the crash of an uncrewed mission in 2022. Flights were subsequently resumed in December 2023.

While Thotakura would be the first Indian venture to space as a tourist, astronaut Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian ever to go to space, way back in 1984. Sharma flew on the Soviet Soyuz T-11 and spent over a week at the Salyut-7 space station of the USSR.