As the Axiom Mission 4 successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, India’s space dreams soared higher. Among the four-member international crew is Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, a serving Indian Air Force officer and part of ISRO’s pioneering astronaut team. If the mission completes as planned, he will become the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS) and the second Indian in space after Rakesh Sharma.
Beyond the headlines and spacefaring milestones lies a journey deeply anchored in South India — from rigorous astronaut training and academic excellence to the very moment his historic mission was announced.
Training Ground: Bengaluru, The Astronaut’s Cradle
Shukla’s journey into space first took shape in Bengaluru, after he received a call from ISRO in 2019, following which he was inducted into Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM) after being selected as one of four candidates for ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission. After completing basic training in Russia at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in 2021, he returned to Bangalore for advanced training at the newly built ISRO Astronaut Training Facility.
During this phase, Shukla also pursued and completed a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore — one of India’s premier scientific institutions. IISc celebrated his achievement on X (formerly Twitter), saying: “Our best wishes to Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla for his historic journey as part of #Ax4! We were privileged to host him as an MTech student at IISc and look forward to the outcomes of his space experiments.”
Milestone Moment: Shubhanshu Shukla’s Name Revealed In Kerala
The world first officially heard Shukla’s name as part of India’s astronaut team on 27 February 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the four crew members for the Gaganyaan mission during a high-profile event at ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
Backup Astronaut From Kerala: Prasanth Nair’s Parallel Journey
Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, a fellow ISRO astronaut and Shukla’s backup for the Ax-4 mission, also shares deep ties with South India. Born in Nemmara, Palakkad (Kerala), Nair’s life took a turn after returning from Kuwait post the Gulf War. An alumnus of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Pallavur, and later the Flying Instructors School in Tambaram, Tamil Nadu, Nair became a Category A Flight Instructor before joining India’s elite astronaut corps.
On the same day Shukla’s name was announced, Nair was revealed as the commander for the upcoming Gaganyaan-4 mission, scheduled for 2026 — India’s first fully indigenous human spaceflight.
