Before astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla’s space mission, prayers, questions — and a surprise dinner meet | Long Reads News

Shubhanshu Shukla, Slawosz Uznanski during training. (Photo Credit: Axiom Space)

The dinner meeting, which included a presentation by Stibbe, helped assuage their fears and offered a window into what Shukla would experience as he travels to space as part of the Axiom-4 mission that is scheduled to finally launch on June 10.

“We had been hearing about Shubhanshu’s space journey for a long time, and naturally, there were many questions that came to mind. But there was no one we could turn to and ask about what really happened up there and what he would be doing,” says Asha Shukla, 67, a homemaker, speaking to The Indian Express at the family home in Lucknow Triveni Nagar.

“He [Stibbe] didn’t speak about the challenges he faced. Instead, he told us about the beauty of the journey… He told us that in just three minutes, he went from being an aircraft pilot to an astronaut. That was a touching line. His face shone with the happiness of having seen, achieved, and experienced so much,” says Suchi Shukla, 40, a school teacher.

“Now, we are only praying for our son’s safe journey,” says Shubhanshu’s father Shambhu Dayal Shukla, who retired as a joint secretary in 2013.

On June 10 – over 10 months after the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) first announced his name as one of four astronauts as part of the Axion 4 or Ax-4 Mission – Shubhanshu will take off on a two-week Indo-US mission.

Shukla will pilot a Dragon spacecraft that will take him, and three others, to the ISS, about 400 km from the Earth. Commandeered by veteran US astronaut Peggy Whitson, the mission will take off from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, making Shubhanshu only the second Indian to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma’s iconic spaceflight onboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft in 1984.

The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft rolled out to pad 39A in Florida ahead of Tuesday’s launch of Axiom Mission-4. (Image source: SpaceX)

Born in Lucknow on October 10, 1985, Group Captain Shubhanshu is the youngest of three siblings – after his eldest sister Nidhi, 43, is an MBA graduate and a homemaker. He is also the first in his family to join the armed forces, with his family initially encouraging him to take up civil services.

From the premier National Defence Academy, Shubhanshu was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force on June 17, 2006.

“I wanted to ask him to prepare for civil services after his Class 12 exams in 2002,” Shambhu Dayal says. “But a friend of his decided to apply to the National Defence Academy (NDA). When he discovered that he was too old to qualify for the exam, he gave the form to Shubhanshu.”

Shubhanshu married his wife Kamna Shukla, a dentist, in 2009. Kamna is currently in Florida with the couple’s six-year-old son to see the launch of the mission.

Over the years, Shubhanshu has served in various parts of the country — including Bhuj, Jodhpur, and Srinagar — and was in Bengaluru when his name was announced for the mission.

Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is among those flying to the International Space Station.

Those who know him describe Shubhanshu as “not reserved but not one to talk to everyone”. “He respects everyone but prefers to connect only with those he feels comfortable around,” his sister Suchi says.

“He had very few close friends, mostly kept indoors and never went out alone to buy anything from the market, so it’s unlikely that many people in the neighbourhood knew him well,” says Shambhu Dayal.

At Shubhanshu’s City Montessori School, Shukla’s math teacher Nageshwar Prasad, 55, remembers him as a good student. “Shubhanshu would give equal importance to sports and studies,” says Prasad, who also taught Shubhanshu’s wife Kamna.

Back at the Shuklas, the family says that while they are no longer anxious, they admit to feeling jittery as the date of the take-off approaches. Despite this, they know that their son is not one to shy away from challenges.

“We were initially scared when he said he wanted to join the armed forces. Then we were anxious when he said he would spend over a year training in Russia to become an astronaut, mainly because he’s never one to ever go out anywhere alone. But he’s adapted himself to challenges,” his proud mother Asha says.

While Shubhanshu’s parents had initially planned to travel to Florida to see their son off, plans changed after his mother Asha developed severe spondylitis that made travel difficult. As a result, they take comfort in the little things – such as daily video calls and phone calls that he makes to assure them of his well-being.

Meanwhile, for the last few days, the Shuklas’ white single-storeyed Anshu Niwas in one corner of Triveni Nagar has been seeing a steady stream of friends, relatives, well-wishers and the media – all there to offer their good wishes.

“We now plan to hold a puja before his mission,” Shambhu says.