By Dipak Kurmi
The image of Shubhanshu Shukla floating inside the International Space Station (ISS), smiling and waving to millions back home, marks an indelible moment in India’s space history. This is not merely about an individual Indian making it to space. Rather, it signals the formal dawn of India’s entry into the exclusive league of nations pursuing human spaceflight capabilities. Shukla’s journey, though aboard a mission not directly launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is in every sense a milestone for India’s growing space ambitions.
What makes Shukla’s achievement distinct is its context within India’s evolving space programme. Unlike many first-time astronauts from other nations, Shukla’s space journey is not a one-off incident. It is the starting point of a sustained process aimed at establishing India’s own independent human spaceflight capabilities. His own words capture the significance perfectly: this was not the beginning of his journey, but the beginning of India’s human spaceflight era. Until now, only three countries—the United States, Russia, and China—have demonstrated the ability to send humans to space on indigenous launch systems. India is set to become the fourth.
Shukla’s presence on the Axiom-4 mission must be viewed as an integral part of India’s Gaganyaan programme, ISRO’s flagship human spaceflight mission now scheduled for its first crewed flight in 2027. Originally, Shukla, along with three other Indian Air Force pilots, was selected for Gaganyaan. However, when the Axiom-4 mission—a private mission managed by the US-based company Axiom Space in partnership with NASA—offered a chance for an Indian astronaut to travel to the ISS, India grabbed the opportunity. This decision reflects strategic foresight. While Gaganyaan’s full-scale human mission awaits final testing and launch readiness, Shukla’s participation allowed ISRO to gain first-hand exposure to mission operations, astronaut conditioning, and in-orbit protocols in collaboration with global partners.
The significance of this mission extends well beyond symbolic value. For ISRO, the learning curve on human spaceflight is steep and demanding. The opportunity to embed its teams within NASA’s operations for Axiom-4 gave Indian engineers, mission planners, and support staff critical insights into pre-launch protocols, launch logistics, crew monitoring, and post-mission recovery procedures. This exposure will directly influence how India plans, executes, and manages its own future human spaceflights, including the Gaganyaan missions and eventual plans for a dedicated Indian space station by 2035.
Moreover, this mission comes at a time when the global space industry is undergoing a historic transformation. Space is no longer the sole preserve of national space agencies. In the past decade, commercial players, especially in the United States, have entered the field in a big way. Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Axiom Space are redefining access to space. This is particularly true for lower Earth orbit (LEO), the busiest stretch of space between 200 km and 2,000 km from Earth, where the ISS is also located. This orbit has become a commercial goldmine for satellite operators, data service providers, and space tourism companies. The rapid proliferation of space-based assets in this band signals a shift where national agencies are increasingly focusing their energies on deeper space missions—toward the Moon, Mars, and beyond—leaving LEO to commercial players.
India, with its growing space economy and a robust private space sector slowly taking shape under the umbrella of ISRO and the newly formed Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe), is well poised to capitalize on this trend. Human spaceflight capability is crucial for this transition. Without indigenous capacity to launch and sustain human missions, India would remain dependent on foreign partnerships for future lunar or interplanetary exploration, placing a strategic handicap on its ambitions.
Already, the US and China are racing ahead with lunar missions and long-term Moon colonization plans. The Artemis program led by NASA and China’s Chang’e missions are both focused on establishing human presence on the Moon within this decade. Shukla’s mission, and India’s broader human spaceflight programme, are steps to ensure India does not lag behind in this new space race. The Moon is no longer just a scientific destination; it is increasingly seen as a staging post for deeper space missions and, importantly, a source of critical resources like Helium-3 and rare earth elements.
Moreover, India’s collaboration with NASA underlines a growing international recognition of ISRO’s capabilities. NASA’s decision to partner with ISRO on human spaceflight matters and offer training opportunities for Indian astronauts signals an acknowledgment of India as a serious spacefaring nation. This cooperation is likely to deepen in the years ahead, with possibilities for joint human space missions and even co-development of space infrastructure.
For Shukla personally, this mission was the culmination of years of preparation, often under challenging circumstances. India lacks its own full-fledged astronaut training facilities, forcing ISRO to send its Gaganyaan astronaut candidates to Russia for initial training. Shukla and Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, who was on standby for the Axiom-4 mission, also underwent advanced training at NASA facilities in the United States. This cross-training experience has created a cadre of astronauts equipped with diverse operational knowledge drawn from two of the most experienced spacefaring nations.
This presents an immediate opportunity for India to invest in setting up its own world-class astronaut training centre. Given India’s ambitions for sustained human spaceflight missions, such a facility would be a critical national asset. Moreover, India could open this centre for commercial astronaut training, offering services to other countries looking to send payload specialists or astronauts to space but lacking their own infrastructure.
There is also a geopolitical dimension to consider. The ISS, one of the world’s greatest symbols of international space cooperation, is slated for decommissioning by 2030. India has never been a part of the ISS consortium. But with global plans underway for the ISS replacement—likely to involve new international coalitions—India now stands a real chance of being included as a core partner. Its plans for a 2035 Indian space station fit neatly into this emerging landscape. The possibility of India’s future space station becoming an integrated component of a broader multinational LEO infrastructure cannot be ruled out.
Shukla’s mission also holds great value in inspiring public imagination. Just as Rakesh Sharma’s spaceflight in 1984 awakened a generation’s interest in space science, Shukla’s presence at the ISS could spur the next wave of young Indians to aspire for careers in space technology, astronautics, and aerospace engineering.
In sum, Shubhanshu Shukla’s journey is much more than a personal achievement or a national headline. It represents India’s stepping stone into an era where human spaceflight becomes not just a dream, but an operational reality. It signals India’s readiness to engage with the next phase of space exploration on equal terms with other major powers. As ISRO prepares for Gaganyaan and looks ahead to future Moon missions and space station projects, the lessons from this mission will prove invaluable.
The opportunities are immense, the challenges daunting, but the trajectory is unmistakably upward. Shukla’s smile from space is more than a moment—it is the beginning of India’s next great space odyssey.
(The writer can be reached at dipakkurmiglpltd@gmail.com)
