New Delhi [India], April 4 (ANI): Indian cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma expressed his joy over the 40th anniversary of becoming the first Indian to reach outer space on board the Soviet Rocket Soyuz T-11.

On April 3, 1984, Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to go into space as a member of a joint Soviet-Indian crew on the Soyuz T-11 spacecraft. He spent a week working at the Salyut-7 Orbital Station.

"I was just 35 when I had the chance to fly into space after having trained at Star City. And 40 years have passed... These 40 years have been extremely productive for our country and our relationship with Russia because our four astronaut designates, who are shortly getting ready to go up into space, were trained at the same place where I received my training," he said.

"The current crop of four has received the same kind of training as I did... Primarily because, apart from technology, the human being hasn't changed. The way we condition the human body to face the vigours of space travel hasn't changed," he added.

Meanwhile, the photo exhibition on "The 40 years of the first flight of an Indian cosmonaut" was inaugurated at the Russian House in Chennai.

As part of the celebration of space exploration and international collaboration, the Russian House in Chennai, in partnership with the Russian news agency TASS, inaugurated a photo exhibition, "The 40 Years of the First Flight of an Indian Cosmonaut."Murthy Remilla, Head, Project Management, Human Spaceflight Group, Gaganyaan Programme of India, URSC, ISRO, Jayakumar Venkatesan, CEO and Human Spaceflight Researcher, Harpy Aerospace, India, IK Lenin Tamilkovan, Executive Director, Tamilnadu Science and Technology Centre Chennai, and Oleg N Avdeev, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Chennai, participated in the event. (ANI)