On Monday, Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, an Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Commodore and astronaut-designate for the Gaganyaan mission, was honored with the Kirti Chakra by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Kirti Chakra is India's second-highest peacetime gallantry award, acknowledging Nair's courage and dedication to duty. Nair, who has served as a backup pilot for the upcoming Axiom mission-4 to the International Space Station (ISS), has a remarkable career as a test pilot, logging over 3,000 hours of flight time on various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI and MiG-29. He completed rigorous training at NASA's Johnson Space Centre and was also trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow. Alongside Nair, President Murmu awarded six other Kirti Chakras, including two posthumously, and recognized numerous personnel from the defence and police forces during the phase-I of the Defence Investiture Ceremony 2026.