India’s first ISS astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is receiving all the love, respect, and honour he deserves. Not only did he create history by becoming the first Indian aboard the International Space Station, Shukla also became the second person from India ever to step into space, after Rakesh Sharma.

Now, back from his space flight, Shukla met Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week, during which he presented a Axion-4 mission patch to the PM. Continuing his high-level meet-ups, the IAF Group Captain also met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday (August 21).

Shubhanshu Shukla-Rajnath Singh meet: What happened?

The defence minister congratulated Shukla on his achievement, calling it a major milestone in India’s journey towards human spaceflight. Singh also acknowledged the astronaut’s contribution through the vital scientific experiments conducted in orbit and appreciated his role in advancing India’s space research and exploration capabilities.

“I am confident that his inspiring journey will motivate young minds to pursue careers in science, technology, and space exploration,” he said in a post on X after the meeting. The two discussed “the inspiring space journey, the vital experiments he undertook in orbit, advances in science and technology, and the road ahead with India’s pioneering Gaganyaan mission.”

In addition to the same, the defence minister also underlined the pivotal role of the Indian Air Force (IAF) in India’s space programme, since Shukla himself is an IAF personnel.

Shukla hopes for space travel in our own rocket

Later the same day, the IAF Group Captain exuded hope that someday someone would very soon travel to space “from our own capsule, from our rocket, from our soil”. Addressing a press conference here, Group Captain Shukla said the first-hand experience from the ISS mission was invaluable and a lot better than any training.

On his Axiom-4 Mission, Shukla said the experience from the ISS mission would be very useful for India’s own Gaganyaan mission, and he learnt a lot in the past year as part of his mission.

With this, the astronaut described his experience and how incomparable it is to almost anything. “No matter how much training you have done, even after that, when you sit in the rocket and the engines ignite, when they catch fire, I think it is a very different feeling,” Shukla said at a press conference on Thursday evening.

“I had not imagined how it would feel, and I was actually running behind the rocket for the first few seconds, and it took me some time to catch up to it. From that moment until the time we splashed down, the experience was unbelievable. It was so exciting and so amazing that I have really been struggling to find words to convey it to you, so that you can live that experience through my words,” he said.

He went on to thank everyone who helped bring this mission to the population of India, making it accessible for everyone to view. Towards the end, Shukla underscored that India looks saare jahaan se achcha (better than the entire world) even today, words first used by Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma after his space mission in 1984.