Indian Air Force Officer Shubhanshu Shukla has been set to create history by driving NASA and Isro's Joint Space Mission to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year. According to a NASA declaration Last week, Shubhanshu Shukla will control the mission from the desk to the ISS on board a SpaceX Dragon -Space Varitage from Florida “No earlier than Spring 2025”.
In particular, Shubhanshu Shukla will be the second Indian in space after the journey of Astronaut Rakesh Sharma on board PTI report. Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to drive to space under the Soviet Interkosmos program, added it. Now Shubhanshu Shukla will also write history as the first Indian visiting the ISS.
Who is Shubhanshu Shukla?
Shubhanshu Shukla, born on October 10, 1985 in Luckknow, Uttar Pradesh, completed his higher education at City Montessori School, Luckknow. He is married to a dentist from Jankipuram, Luckknow and has a four -year -old son.
After his training, Shubhanshu Shukla joined the National Defense Academy and was put into use in the IAF in the Fighter Stream on 17 June 2006. He was an IAF wing commander before he was promoted to Group Captain.
He currently serves as a pilot for hunter fight test 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 IndiaShubhanshu Shukla's sister, Suchi Shukla, said his journey to an astronaut started in 2018-19, and he spent his training period during the COVID-19 Pandemie in the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow, Russia.
Especially at the age of 39 he is the youngest to be chosen as an astronaut-driven and was selected as one of the four astronauts for Isro's historical indigenous human space mission, Gaganyaan.
Speaking during a press conference for the mission last week, Shubhanshu Shukla said that the experience of Axiom Mission 4 (AX-4) would be “very well used” for Gaganyan.
Axiom Mission 4 (AX-4): Shubhanshu Shukla's plans
Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is looking forward to taking items representing India on his space travel for Axiom Mission 4 (AX-4), he said, adding that he also hopes to perform some yoga poses on board the ISS.
“I am really, very enthusiastic to go into micro -gravity and to experience space travel. The pace for the mission is structured every month, and I think we are at a stage where all the pieces come together a bit. I am very excited to see how this will lose itself in the coming months,” said Shubhanshu Shukla.
He added: “I also have a personal agenda to make my experiences on board the station (ISS) through photos and videos, so that I can share it with all 'bharatvaasis' at home. I want them to share this exciting experience through my eyes, because I really believe that, even if an individual travel to space, the journey of 1.4 billion people.”
Shubhanshu Shukla said he is planning to take items from different parts of India during the 14-day mission and said that he also hopes to serve Indian food to astronauts in the orbital laboratory.
Axiom Mission 4 (AX-4): Meet the crew
According to NASA, Peggy Whitson, the director of the former NASA Astronaut and Axiom Space's Director of Human SpaceFlight, will order the commercial mission, and Shubhanshu Shukla will be the mission pilot.
The two mission specialists are the European space agency Project Astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
