Indian Air Force officer Shubhanshu Shukla is set to create history by piloting NASA and ISRO’s joint space mission to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year. According to a NASA statement last week, Shubhanshu Shukla will pilot the agency’s mission to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from Florida “no earlier than spring 2025”.
Notably, Shubhanshu Shukla will become the second Indian in space after astronaut Rakesh Sharma‘s voyage aboard the USSR’s Soyuz T-11 mission in 1984, as per a PTI report. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to travel to space under the Soviet Interkosmos programme, it added. Now, Shubhanshu Shukla will also make history as the first Indian to visit the ISS.
Who is Shubhanshu Shukla?
Born on October 10, 1985, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Shubhanshu Shukla completed his higher education at City Montessori School, Lucknow. He is married to a dentist from Jankipuram, Lucknow and has a four-year-old son.
After his schooling, Shubhanshu Shukla joined the National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the IAF on June 17, 2006, in the fighter stream. He was an IAF Wing Commander before being promoted to Group Captain.
He is currently serving as a fighter combat test pilot in the IAF with 2,000 hours of flying experience, including on the Sukhoi-30MKI, Mig-21, Mig-29, An-32, Dornier, Hawk, and Jaguar.
In an older interview with the Times of India, Shubhanshu Shukla‘s sister, Suchi Shukla, said that his journey to becoming an astronaut began in 2018-19, and he spent his training period during the COVID-19 pandemic at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Moscow, Russia.
Notably, at 39, he is the youngest to be picked as an astronaut-designate and was handpicked as one of the four astronauts for ISRO’s historic indigenous human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan.
Speaking at a press conference for the mission last week, Shubhanshu Shukla said the experience from Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) would be “very well utilised” for Gaganyaan.
Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4): Shubhanshu Shukla’s Plans
Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is looking forward to taking items representing India on his spaceflight for Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), he said, adding that he also hopes to perform some yoga poses aboard the ISS.
“I am really, really excited to go into microgravity and experience spaceflight on my own. The tempo for the mission has been building up each month, and I think we are at a stage where all the pieces are kind of coming together. I am extremely excited to see how this unfolds in the coming months,” Shubhanshu Shukla said.
He added, “I also have a personal agenda of capturing my experiences on board the station (ISS) through pictures and videos so that I can share these with all the ‘Bharatvaasis’ back home. I want them to share this thrilling experience through my eyes, for I truly believe that, even as an individual travelling to space, this is the journey of 1.4 billion people.”
Shubhanshu Shukla said he plans to take items from different parts of India during the 14-day mission and said he also hopes to serve Indian food to astronauts on the orbital laboratory.
Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4): Meet the Crew
According to NASA, Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight, will command the commercial mission, and Shubhanshu Shukla will be the mission pilot.
The two mission specialists are European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.