Earlier, four ace pilots of the Indian Air Force (IAF) were selected for India's maiden manned mission Gaganyaan around the earth's orbit by 2022, a top space official announced on January 1. IAF test pilot Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to have gone into space as a cosmonaut aboard Soyuz-T from Russia on April 2, 1984, when he was 35 years old.