Future looks extremely bright, perseverance key to success: Shubhanshu Shukla to students

Lucknow: "The entire landscape is changing, and I think the future is extremely bright," said astronaut and Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla here on Monday, while stressing that it was only perseverance that has defined his success.

Shukla reached his hometown this morning for the first time since his historic AXIOM 4 space mission. Although he arrived in India from the US on August 17, he is visiting the Uttar Pradesh capital now after participating in multiple outreach events, including a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 18 in Delhi.

Speaking to children at his alma mater, City Montessori School (CMS), the first Indian to visit the International Space Station said, "In my experience that I have had in the last five years of training and last one year of flying to the International Space Station and coming back -- looking at how this entire landscape is changing, I think the future is extremely bright."

"We are at the right time, right opportunities exist now," he said.

Shux, as he is fondly called, said he had three interactions with children while on the orbit and no one asked him what he did or what astronauts do, but the question he was asked was "how do I become an astronaut?".

Acknowledging the dance and other performances put up by the students of his alma mater, Shukla told the gathering, "I was not even halfway there, not as talented as you all are. And if I could reach where I have reached with being what I was, I can only imagine what you kids will be when you grow up.

"The only thing that is required is perseverance, nothing else, just perseverance," he stressed.