Childhood visit to air show shaped Shukla’s space dream

As he zoomed into space on board the SpaceX Falcon 9-rocket on Wednesday, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla gave wing to the hopes of an entire nation–and realised his own dream that likely first took shape when he attended an air show as a child.

The 39-year-old, who propelled himself into history as the first Indian on the International Space Station and only the second to go into space after Rakesh Sharma in 1984, has more than 2,000 hours of flying experience on a wide range of fighter jets over a decade-long career in the Indian Air Force. The Lucknow-born Shukla, who goes by the call sign ‘Shux’, is part of an ISRO-NASA supported commercial spaceflight by Axiom Space that blasted off for a 14-day sojourn to the International Space Station from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

Millions dream of soaring into space to conquer that final frontier. And some like Shukla get to give it fruition. His elder sister Suchi Shukla remembers when it all first started. As a child he had once been to an air show, and he later told me how he was fascinated by the speed and sound of the aircraft. Then he had spoken of his dream to fly, but of course there was no telling at the time how quickly he would embrace his dream. “As an Indian and as his sister, it’s definitely a very proud moment, for this space journey of my brother is carrying with them the hopes and blessings of a billion Indians,” Suchi said ahead of the launch that was delayed several times. He is carrying the taste of home with him in his space odyssey, she said. The astronomer loves gajar ka halwa and moong dal ka halwa, she said. “He wanted co-passengers on his space journey to taste them as well,” Suchi said.

He was selected to be part of India’s astronaut corps in 2019 along with fellow test pilots Prasanth Balkrishnan Nair, Angad Pratap and Ajit Krishnan for the Gaganyaan mission, India’s maiden human spaceflight, which is likely to be launched in 2027.

Born on October 10, 1985, in Lucknow, a year after his hero icon Rakesh Sharma’s historic spaceflight, Shukla did his schooling from City Montessori School (CMS) before joining the National Defence Academy.

“He has got that drive and that focus in him on what he wants in life. Once he decides, like, for example, to be the first Indian to go to the ISS, he focusses on it, puts his entire resources and his mind into it, and removes all other obstacles,” said Nair, Shukla’s back-up astronaut.

He was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in 2006 and has over 2,000 hours of flying time on a wide range of aircraft including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-29, Jaguar, and Dornier-228. He holds an MTech in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Shukla and the three other Gaganyaan astronaut designates underwent extensive training at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre and ISRO’s Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru. Shukla’s crewmates on the Axiom-4 mission, commander Peggy Whitson and mission specialists Tibor Kapu from Hungary and Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland, describe him as “operational-savvy”, “focussed” and “wicked smart” when it comes to space technologies. The crew shared their launch day playlist. His was the song “Yun Hi Chala Chal…”, an ode to life road song about travel and more that he has taken to space. It is from “Swades”, the Shah Rukh Khan starrer quite coincidentally about a NASA scientist.

In Lucknow, Shukla’s school CMS organised a “public watch party” to celebrate his spaceflight. CMS is also where he first met his wife Kamna though the couple had an arranged marriage, his father said. They have a six-year-old son Kiash.

Before his departure, Shukla left a heartfelt note for his wife Kamna Shubha on Instagram, “Special thanks to Kamna Shubha for being the wonderful partner that you are. Without you, none of this was possible, but more importantly, none of this would matter. No one travels to space alone — we do so on the shoulders of so many more. I feel grateful to all of you.”

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