SHUKLA 'PAKSH' IN SPACE

Even as 140 crore Indians wait anxiously for Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, to pilot the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on Wednesday (June 11 conditions apply) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida as part of Nasa's Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), First India salutes Shukla as we unfold details of his and achievements.

- Robin Roy

Known as Shux to his friends and associates, Shukla will become the first Indian to travel to the ISS and the second Indian to travel to space. Shukla's travel to space marks India's return to human spaceflight 41 years after Rakesh Sharma scripted history by undertaking a journey to space onboard Soviet Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Shubhanshu Shukla is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune.

He joined IAF in June 2006 and gradually rose to become a Group Captain in March 2024. Shukla has over 2,000 flight-hours across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI and MiG-29. His journey into space began when the ISRO selected him for training in 2019 at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia. He worked further on his skills at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru after he returned from Russia. Shukla was born on October 10, 1985 and did his schooling at the City Montessori School (CMS), Lucknow.

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