'Carrying India's Dreams': Astronaut-Designate On Shubhanshu Shukla's Mission

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, one of the four astronaut-designates trained under India's Gaganyaan program, is set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom mission this month. Among those who trained alongside Mr Shukla for India's maiden human spaceflight project is Group Captain Angad Pratap, who shared his thoughts on Mr Shukla's preparations for the Axiom-4 mission, which is scheduled to launch on June 8.

"He (Mr Shukla) has been our colleague for the last five years. In our training, one of the most important things is that more than what you learn from the instructor or the curriculum, there is a lot of lateral learning that happens," Mr Pratap said.

Mr Pratap, who is part of Gaganyaan along with Mr Shukla, Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair and Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, emphasised that the journey of astronaut training is not a solo pursuit.

"All four of us have our own strengths and weaknesses. I have learnt some very strong aspects of the qualities that an astronaut should have from each one of these individuals," he said.

Expressing confidence that Mr Shukla will be a "good astronaut", Mr Pratap said that he has a "great responsibility" as there are many people whose "aspirations are going to fly along" with the Indian astronaut.

"Rakesh Sharma Sir flew decades ago. In the modern era, Shukla has the opportunity to fly into space. And it is not Shukla alone who gets to fly into space. These are those faceless people whose aspirations are going to fly along with Shukla. He must remember that he's not alone. With him, a lot of other Indians are going to fly and a lot of dreams are going to be fulfilled," he said.

He also said the mission will open the "floodgates for human spaceflight in India".

"The aim is that spaceflight experience should be available to an average person," he said.

On the safety of the Axiom mission, Mr Pratap expressed full confidence in the Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon systems.

"They've already proven themselves. The kind of levels of safety and reliability that they must have checked is unquestionably complete," he said.

When asked if he felt disappointed about not being selected for the Axiom mission, Mr Pratap said, "Of course, when an opportunity like this comes up... you do feel at the end of the day that one opportunity is missed. But another aspect of being an astronaut is handling rejection. That is what makes the real character of an astronaut."

"It doesn't really matter even for the Gaganyaan's first mission, whether I am the one who's flying or any one of the four of us, because all of us have got the same training and all of us are the true sons of the soil," he added.