Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who became the first Indian astronaut to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), on Thursday interacted with the mediapersons in New Delhi and spoke about his
historic mission.
Shukla was accompanied by Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, who was his designated backup for Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4).
During the press meet, Nair shared heartfelt moments with Shukla and said the latter is like “Rama” for him.
“A few months from now, we will have Diwali. That’s the time when Shri Ram ji entered Ayodhya. We are here right now to the Rama that is Shux, I can call myself Laxman. It feels like Diwali here today, and all our countrymen are here to receive us. But remember I am elder to Shux, I would love to be Laxman to this Ram every day. Shri Ram and Laxman got a lot of help from the Vanar sena, that is our fantastic ISRO team. Thank you, Hanuman and the team.
#LIVE– Group Captain Prashant B Nair on India’s historic space feat:
“Feels like Diwali… I feel like Laxman to my Ram (says pointing towards Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla. And the entire Vanar Sena of ISRO made this possible” | #WATCH#ISRO #SpaceMission #ShubhanshuShukla pic.twitter.com/Hn984hZT14
— News18 (@CNNnews18) August 21, 2025
Nair also underlined that India’s time come. “Whether it’s a technical prowess, industry or josh,” he added.
Shukla and Nair are among four astronauts part of India’s first human Space mission “Gaganyaan” programme.
India plans to undertake its first human spaceflight in 2027 and build its own space station by 2035. India also aims to land its own astronaut on the moon by 2040.
Speaking on his feat, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla said this mission has been extremely successful and all technical objectives have been achieved.
“The benefit of executing a human space mission is more than the training. The supplementary knowledge we get just by being there is invaluable. All the information I have collected in the past year will be extremely useful to us for our own missions, Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station… Very soon we shall send someone from our capsule, from our rocket and our soil… The experience is very different from what you learn on the ground. The body goes through a lot of changes… The body forgets how to live in gravity after spending 20 days in space,” he said.
