The reason why Shukla’s Ax-4 space mission experience aboard the ISS is crucial is because it exposes him to a longer duration of stay and conduct of experiments in space. Gaganyaan mission will be much shorter. The experience that Shukla will bring back to the table will be invaluable. It will include the experience of living in space for two weeks, during the lift-off effects on the body, and that of splashdown at the end of the mission. In addition will be the valuable data that he will have gathered through his seven experiments that he will be conducting in space over the 14-day mission onboard the ISS, which will be of crucial relevance for India’s own manned space missions in the years ahead.Also, as Shux will have already had the experience of a space mission following the Ax-4 mission, he may likely be among the three Indian astronauts to be on the maiden Gaganyaan mission. The other three Gaganyatris (as Gaganyaan astronauts are called) are Gp Capt Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Gp Capt Ajit Krishnan and Gp Capt Angad Prathap.Born on October 10, 1985, and a native of Lucknow, Shukla is the youngest of three siblings born to the now-retired government official Shambhu Dayal Shukla and homemaker Asha Shukla. As a 14-year-old, he was inspired by the 1999 Kargil War, which in turn influenced him to join the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla, Pune, where he got his BSc in Computer Science in 2005. He later underwent training at the Indian Air Force Academy at Dundigal near Hyderabad.He was commissioned as a Flying Officer in June 2006 in the fighter stream of the IAF, turning out to be an impressive air combat leader and later a seasoned test pilot with the experience of flying a slew of aircraft.From Shukla, the fighter pilot of the IAF, where it is believed “sky is the limit”, Shux, the astronaut, now believes “Sky is never the limit!” for Indians, and is the man who is showing the way beyond it.
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