Shubhanshu Shukla: India’s new star

NEW DELHI, (IANS): About 41 years after Rakesh Sharma's flight in 1984, India sent an astronaut into space -- Shubhanshu Shukla.

Shukla, who became the first Indian to go to the International Space Station (ISS), has emerged as the new star -- also establishing a firm place for India in the global space arena.

The 20-day mission, led by private American company Axiom Space, in collaboration with NASA, SpaceX, and other government space agencies, including ISRO, launched to the ISS on June 26.

Shukla returned to Earth on Tuesday along with fellow astronauts from the US, Poland, and Hungary aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft "Grace".

Lucknow-born Shukla was included in the astronaut selection process by ISRO in 2019 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 announced from the Red Fort that a son or daughter of India would go to space very soon.

In January 2025, the 39-year-old astronaut was selected as the pilot for the Ax-4 mission -- a collaborative mission between NASA and ISRO.

The IAF officer became the youngest astronaut-designate under India's Gaganyaan mission -- the country’s first human spaceflight mission.

Speaking to IANS in March, Shukla said he hopes to use his “journey to inspire this entire generation to pursue their careers in the field of space,” as he “was extremely inspired and motivated” by Rakesh Sharma.

On the Ax-4 mission, Shukla served as the pilot alongside Commander Peggy Whitson of the US.

“During the transit journey, I'm going to be acting as the mission pilot, so I will be working alongside the commander of the vehicle, managing the systems, navigating the vehicle, and looking at all the data that is available, and if required, intervening and, interacting with the systems, if something was to go wrong or there was a need for a manual intervention,” Shukla told IANS.

On the ISS, Shukla conducted seven pioneering experiments related to food and space nutrition that aimed to enhance understanding of sustainable life-support systems, a crucial aspect of future long-duration space travel.

“Experiments on Indian strain of tardigrades, myogenesis, sprouting of methi and moong seeds, cyanobacteria, microalgae, crop seeds, and voyager display have been completed as planned,” ISRO said.

Shukla's mission is not only an inspiration for billions of Indians but also a key stepping stone for India's Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, slated for 2027.