Waiting for lift-off: Shubhanshu Shukla's family, friends count the days to space odyssey

Lucknow, Jun 4 (PTI) His countdown to space, the final frontier, has begun. And Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s family and friends are anxiously ticking off the days before he lifts off on board SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket that will propel him into history as the first Indian to step onto the International Space Station (ISS).

The 39-year-old Lucknow boy’s much anticipated space voyage, scheduled on June 10 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, will also mark India’s return to human spaceflight after Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 odyssey.

“It’s true that as our son stands on the brink of history and is set to represent India in NASA’s AXIOM-4 mission to the ISS. It’s an immensely proud moment not just for us but for the country, and we are praying for the success of this space mission each day,” Shukla’s Lucknow-based father Shambhu, a retired government employee, told PTI.

“He calls us up each day to check on our well-being and to make us feel comfortable before his space trip that holds its own significance for the country,” he added.

The family hasn’t seen him in a year and a half as he has been in intensive training.

According to his elder sister Suchi Mishra, there is so much talk of the space mission that don’t mention it very much during their conversations. "We keep our conversation as normal as possible. We are eagerly waiting for the mission's success and for our brother to be back home with us." She recalled that her brother would talk excitedly about aircraft as a child and this is a dream come true.

“As a child he had once been to an air show, and he later told me how he was fascinated by the speed and sound of the aircrafts. Then he had spoken of his dream to fly, but of course there was no telling at the time how quickly he would embrace his dream.

“As an Indian and as his sister, it’s definitely a very proud moment, for this space journey of my brother is carrying with them the hopes and blessings of a billion Indians,” Suchi told PTI.

The 14-day space flight is being seen as preparatory to the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) own Gaganyaan human-spaceflight programme.

The City Montessori School (CMS), where Shukla studied right from the beginning to primary classes to class 12, is also agog with excitement. Ensuring that its students don’t miss out, the management is making special arrangements to watch the action live.

More than 62,000 students from across all its branches will be watching to celebrate Shukla’s journey from classrooms to space, said CMS manager Geeta Gandhi Kingdon.

“We are all behind Shubhanshu and praying for his success, as his journey also embodies our motto of ‘Jai Jagat’ one that will inspire each student to aim for the stars,” Kingdon told PTI.

Nageshwar Prasad Shukla, Shukla’s Maths teacher at CMS’s Aliganj branch in Lucknow, is currently on the Char Dhaam Yatra pilgrimage in Uttarakhand and said he was praying for the success of the space mission of one of his brightest, most focused students.

“As a teacher, I am delighted at the way he has progressed through sheer hard work and is now set to embark on a space odyssey to the ISS that no Indian has ever undertaken before,” Nageshwar told PTI over the phone.

This remarkable career almost never happened.

It was sheer providence that saw Shukla take his National Defence Academy (NDA) exam, his father recalled.

“Some of his CMS classmates had brought up a form for NDA. One of them realized that he was overage by a few days and inquired from Shubhanshu if he would like to apply instead. That’s how it all started.” He remembers the exact moment when the family learnt that Shukla had been selected for the NDA.

“Now, of course, the phones keep buzzing incessantly as my son is set to represent India in NASA’s AXIOM-4 mission to the ISS. But, truth be told, back then in 2001-2, we had a landline phone on which one of Shubhanshu’s friends had called. Mistaking me for my son, he had excitedly shared Shubhanshu's result. That's how we came to know about it. After that he went to take his interview and got selected there,” said Shambhu.

He added that the family would have liked to see the young man in the civil services.

But that was then.

"Back then we nursed that dream but today we feel so proud of his achievements as we bask in reflected glory," said the father. PTI MAN MIN MIN MIN