India’s first ISS astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla eyes Gaganyaan, draws on test pilot experience

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to board the International Space Station (ISS), said he is applying his experience as an Indian Air Force test pilot to his training for ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission.

“Fly any new aircraft that comes in and prove that it has safe operational limits — that’s the principle I followed then, and now too,” Shukla said, describing India’s first human spaceflight programme as a developmental or ‘prototype’ mission.

Nicknamed “Shux” by friends, Shukla called space “humankind’s final frontier” and said he is “raring to get back” after his stint on the ISS.

The Gaganyaan mission, led by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), aims to send Indian astronauts into low-Earth orbit aboard an indigenous spacecraft.