Subhanshu Shukla: The Second Indian In Space

Last February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi named Subhanshu Shukla among the four Indians chosen for Gaganyaan, ISRO’s historic manned space mission. Gaganyaan is slated for sometime next year but, as it turns out, Shukla will not have to wait that long. It has just been announced that on May 29, Axiom-4, a commercial mission, will go to the International Space Station and Shukla will be piloting it on behalf of ISRO.

It is a milestone because the last time an Indian went to space was 41 years ago when wing commander Rakesh Sharma was part of a Soviet Union mission. Like Sharma, Shukla too is an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot. A group captain, he has more than 2000 flying hours under his belt. Born in Lucknow in 1985, he is said to have been inspired to take national defence as his calling after seeing the bravery of Indian soldiers during the 1998 Kargil war.

Shukla has been training for this moment for a long time. As far back as 2019, ISRO selected him to be an astronaut and sent him to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow for training. He is not alone. Even the back up pilot for the Axiom-4 mission is an Indian, Prasanth Nair, also a group captain with IAF. In fact, Shukla will be the first Indian to go to the International Space Station. Sunita Williams has been there but she is of Indian-origin and an American citizen.

The Axiom-4 mission is being done by the US company, Axiom Space, and the vessel carrying them is a Crew Dragon spacecraft of Space X. It will take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission is a precursor for Shukla and ISRO to have experience in manned space flight, the ultimate goal being Gaganyaan. In Axiom-4, two other countries have similar ambitions. Their website notes, ‘The Ax-4 mission will “realize the return” to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, with each nation’s first government-sponsored flight in more than 40 years. While Ax-4 marks these countries’ second human spaceflight mission in history, it will be the first time all three nations will execute a mission on board the International Space Station.’

Shukla will be at the ISS for up to two weeks. Through the mission, ISRO will also be conducting experiments there. Its website says, ‘ISRO has shortlisted seven microgravity research experiments proposed by Indian Principal Investigators (PIs) from various national R&D laboratories/ academic institutions for implementation on International Space Station (ISS) during the upcoming Axiom-4 mission with ISRO’s Gaganyatri.’

Axiom-4Group Captain Subhanshu ShuklaIsroISSMission Gaganyaanspace mission