Ravish Malhotra

Ravish Malhotra (born 25 December 1943 in Lahore, British India) is a retired air commodore of the Indian Air Force. He was an Air Force test pilot stationed at the test centre in Bangalore. He was also the Air Officer Commanding of Hindon Air Force Station near Delhi.

In 1982, he was chosen to train for spaceflight in the Soviet Union's Intercosmos program. Malhotra served as backup for Rakesh Sharma on the Soyuz T-11 mission to Salyut 7 space station which launched the first Indian into space, but never went to space himself. Malhotra was awarded the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples in 1984 and the Kirti Chakra in 1985. His family moved from Lahore to Delhi after India's independence from Britain and the subsequent partition in 1947. The family settled in Calcutta. Malhotra studied at St Thomas School in Calcutta.

Career

Early career After graduation, he was admitted to the National Defence Academy (NDA). Speaking of his career choices, he would later say that he had wanted to join the Indian Navy but was instead drafted into the Indian Air Force (IAF). During the selections, he was told that his eyesight was not good enough for the Navy, while the Air Force had a shortage of cadets at the time.

Indo-Soviet space program After the war, Malhotra was selected for the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California and later to the Indo-Soviet space program, a joint program between India and the former USSR. During this time, he took tests at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine, in Bangalore and later in Moscow. The final tests resulted in Malhotra, Rakesh Sharma, and two other cadets being selected to train for spaceflight in the Soviet Union's Intercosmos program in 1982. The decision to have Sharma go to space and Malhotra remain on the ground was taken by the Ministry of Defence in India halfway through the training program. The couple have two children. As of 2021 he continues to live in Bangalore in Southern India.