Shubhanshu Shukla's Space Odyssey

New Delhi: Flying to space was nowhere on the mind of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla when he stepped into the hallowed precinct of the National Defence Academy.

Born in 1985 in Lucknow – a year after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s scripted his historic journey to space in a Russian space craft – Shukla was fascinated by an air show and decided to join the armed forces.

He cracked the NDA exam, passed in 2005 and a year later was commissioned in the IAF’s fighter stream. Later he picked up an MTech from the department of aerospace engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

After hours of flying the IAF mean machines ranging from Su-30 MKI and MiG-21 to Hawks and Jaguars, the ace pilot - Shux to his mates and Gunjan to his old friends and family - got an opportunity in 2019 to become one of the four Indian astronauts after the Union government announced the ambitious programme.

He was selected as the AX-4 mission pilot because of his skill and trained for more than a year for the much awaited mission. “This will be my first sortie to space as I switched over from happy landing to happy splash down,” Shukla said in a pre-launch press conference.

Shux is married to Kamna, a dentist, and they have a four-year-old son, who loves animals. In fact, the AX-4 astronauts initially thought to carry a toy dinosaur – a favourite for Shukla junior – as a microgravity indicator, but finally zeroed in on Joy, the swan.

Hours before leaving the earth, Shukla posted an instagram message adding a special word of thanks for his wife.

“Special thanks to Kamna for being the wonderful partner that you are. Without you none of this was possible but more importantly none of this would matter,” he said, sharing a photograph that shows them saying goodbye through opposite sides of a glass wall.

The second Indian astronaut is also keeping a secret. He will be bringing a special gift for the first Indian astronaut, Wing Commander Sharma, who has been guiding the Indian human space flight programme and mentoring Shukla and three other Indian astronauts.

“I will personally give it to him (Sharma) after returning. Till then I am not disclosing what the gift is,” Shukla said.