New Delhi: Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla, the 39-year-old Indian Air Force pilot and now astronaut, sent his first message from orbit on Wednesday, just hours after launching aboard the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station.
“Namaskar, mere deshvasiyon,” Shukla said from inside the SpaceX Dragon capsule, calling the journey “one hell of a ride.” He described the Falcon 9 launch as “a push into the seat, then suddenly, nothing—you’re floating in vacuum.”
Adapting to life in space, he added, “I’m learning like a baby how to walk and eat in zero gravity.”
Shukla is only the second Indian citizen to fly to space, and the first to reach the ISS—marking India’s return to crewed spaceflight 41 years after Rakesh Sharma’s historic mission in 1984.
