Group Capt Shubhanshu Shukla
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A brief biography
As of 2025 May
Chethan Kumar, May 2, 2025: The Times of India
It is now only a matter of weeks before Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla makes history as the first Indian to head to the International Space Station (ISS) — and only the second from the country to venture into the final frontier since Rakesh Sharma made his trip on a Soviet Soyuz T-11 in 1984.
Shukla — a decorated Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot and one of the four astronaut-designates under India’s Gaganyaan programme — will take his seat aboard a SpaceX Dragon crew capsule that will be propelled from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, towards humanity’s address in the sky. The take-off will be atop a Falcon-9 rocket, SpaceX’s workhorse launcher that’s known for its reusable first stage.
The 39-year-old’s mission, called Ax-4 (short for Axiom Mission 4), is operated by Axiom Space, a US-based private aerospace firm working closely with Nasa to open up commercial access to low-Earth orbit. The flight is expected to serve as a critical milestone ahead of Isro’s own Gaganyaan mission — the country’s maiden attempt to send astronauts to space aboard an Indian spacecraft and rocket.
Space Tales To Flying Jets
Born on Oct 10, 1985, in Lucknow’s Triveni Nagar, Shukla grew up in a household with two elder sisters. It was a time when India did not have an active human space programme. “The first Indian astronaut travelled to space in 1984. I was born in 1985. I grew up reading about him in our textbooks and hearing stories of space,” he said in an interaction earlier this year. “But the desire to become an astronaut couldn’t have taken root in me as India didn’t have an active programme.”
Instead, a childhood visit to an air show proved definitive as “seeing fighter jets slicing through the sky changed everything”.
At 16, Shukla quietly got hold of a National Defence Academy (NDA) application form from a friend who had opted out and submitted it without informing his parents. That same quiet resolve would be visible again when he applied in 2019 — following PM Narendra Modi’s announcement of the Gaganyaan programme during his Independence Day speech the year before — to become an astronaut after Isro reached out to IAF to identify potential candidates.
An alumnus of City Montessori School, Lucknow, Shukla was commissioned into IAF on June 17, 2006, in the fighter stream. He went on to build up a stellar service record as a Fighter Combat Leader and experimental test pilot, logging over 2,000 hours across aircraft like the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32.
Known by his pet name ‘Gunjan’ to those close to him, Shukla is described as being meticulous and focused. He has maintained the same fitness level for over a decade, trains with precision, and is deeply curious about science, space systems, and technology. His wife, a practising dentist, has been a pillar of support. They have a four-yearold son. Shukla’s parents — Shambhu Dayal and Asha — and sisters Nidhi and Suchi still live in Lucknow.
Runway For Gaganyaan
After clearing physical, psychological, and technical assessments, Shukla was shortlisted among IAF’s final four astronaut-designates alongside Group Captains Prashanth Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Prathap. Their initial training took place at the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) in Bengaluru, followed by a year-long course at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, Russia — the same facility where Rakesh Sharma had trained for his mission.
In Feb 2024, PM Modi revealed the names of the four Gaganyaan candidates. Just months later, Shukla was selected to pilot Axiom Space’s fourth private crewed mission — Ax-4 — to ISS, becoming the first Indian astronaut to be assigned to a multinational spaceflight mission. “Ax-4 will provide valuable hands-on experience for India,” Shukla said from Houston, Texas, where Axiom is headquartered.
“I’m very confident that lessons learned here can be utilised by us to further our own mission, Gaganyaan.”
Sum Of Many Parts
Talking about the training that he had to undergo for his space mission, Shukla said “the experience was different” from what he’d expected.
“This mission involves international partners and multiple components that looked dispersed,” he had explained. “It was uncomfortable for me to not know everything in the beginning. But gradually, you repeat, you go over those things, and then everything comes together.”
The training spans multiple institutions across the US — including Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre, SpaceX facilities in California, and Axiom’s simulation labs — each covering mission systems, emergency procedures, zerogravity operations, and life support.
Through it all, Shukla has developed a deeper appreciation of the scale and coordination needed in modern space missions. “It’s very exciting to see how so many people — engineers, medics, flight directors — come together to make this happen.”
Shukla will fly under the call sign “Shux” on the flight. The crew is to be led by Peggy Whitson, the US’ most experienced astronaut, with over 665 days in space. Joining them are Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, a European Space Agency reserve astronaut from Poland, and Tibor Kapu, a pilot from the Hungarian Air Force.
Countdown Begins
For Shukla, the Ax-4 mission is about more than just scientific experiments or personal achievement. “I may be travelling alone, but this is the journey of 1.4 billion people,” he had said.
He plans to carry with himself items symbolising India’s cultural diversity. In partnership with Isro, university students were invited to submit ideas for small tokens from different regions. The final selection is under wraps, but Shukla has hinted at a special tribute to Rakesh Sharma: “It will be a surprise for him.”
He also hopes to carry Indian food onboard — pending approval — and will attempt to perform yoga asanas in microgravity. “I’d probably demonstrate a few poses of yoga. Most importantly we need to practice yoga while we are on the ground for a healthy body and mind,” Shukla had said. With lift-off now scheduled for May 29, Shukla and the Ax-4 crew are entering the final phase of training. They’ll soon enter a two-week preflight quarantine to protect the ISS from any potential infection.
Once onboard ISS — an orbiting laboratory 400km above Earth — they will spend about two weeks conducting scientific experiments, Earth observations, and technology trials. Shukla will also document the journey aboard the advanced space laboratory for educational outreach.
The Ax-4 mission is being helmed by Axiom Space, a US-based private aerospace firm
It will be performing around 60 scientific studies, including 7 designed by Indian researchers
Four of the Isro studies have been developed in Karnataka, two in Delhi and one in Kerala.
The Indian studies will analyse, among other things, how microgravity conditions impact human interaction with electronic displays and the growth and yield of seeds, including with an eye on crew nutrition during extended missions.
The four-member crew will travel to ISS on board a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which will lift off atop the company’s Falcon 9 rocket (photo right) from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The crew will spend 14 days on ISS
