Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on training for space travel, how the process and working at Axiom Space is different from working on the Gaganyaan Mission with ISRO and why the vastness of the space was overwhelming. The session was moderated by Amitabh Sinha, Climate and Science Editor, The Indian ExpressAmitabh Sinha: Your book, The Second Orbit (Penguin), starts with 14-year-old Shubhanshu Shukla writing to his future self. And he wants his future self to reply to him. Could tell us about how this idea of the book came about?The book idea was suggested by many people, even before I went on the mission. When I was in the US, I was advised that I should keep track of what is happening and journal it. The idea of a book was not in my mind at that time. After the space journey, I have been meeting and talking to many people. It was then that it was suggested that I should write a book. I also realised that it’s not possible for me to be everywhere, in every school, in every college. So, a book is a good way to do this. I was able to relive those moments. If I had not done it at this point, then probably some of them would have been lost. Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla during the Idea Exchange on Thursday, August 12.(Express photo by Renuka Puri)Amitabh Sinha: Tell us about the year-long process of training that you went through, the excitement, the anxiety, the sheer scale of achievement.To become an astronaut, the sheer number of disciplines that you need to train in increases significantly. When you are up in space, there is nobody else. You have to be the pilot, commander, your own doctor, researcher, scientist, plumber, mechanic, everything has to be you. I learned microbiology, medical procedures, it was fascinating.As for the scale, in hindsight, it is even bigger than what I probably had in mind. But when you are in training, you cannot let your mind think like that. If you do, you start taking the pressure of the enormity of it, then it has a crippling effect and you don’t function very well. I don’t function very well. It was only when I was in space did I realise the enormity of it — something larger than life, and something you never thought would happen.On his learnings from axiom | I learned the importance of being a follower. Everywhere, even at the IAF, we are taught to be leaders. But, it is important to listen to others, learn from their experiences and unlearn a few things of your ownAmitabh Sinha: From the launch (on June 25) till your return, were there any crisis moments that were completely unexpected?Story continues below this adGoing to space is a managed crisis. Life should not exist in space. There is nothing that supports life, no air, no water. It is a harsh environment. The sheer energy and force that you experience when you are escaping the pull of gravity from Earth, it is phenomenal. So, just to give an analogy, imagine you are strapped to a seat and the seat is sitting on top of 500 tons of propellant and then you light it on fire. It is not a normal thing, but it is managed very well. That is why there are so many people reviewing these things.When you reach space, everything is actually unexpected. You are taught very well, you are trained very well, but the environment that you experience when you reach there, that cannot be simulated on the ground. Microgravity is the new element which actually changes everything because things don’t behave the way they behave when you are on the ground. Everything is new, everything is a delta that you have to navigate and experience only when you are there. There is a saying in the space flight community that you are ready for a space flight when you finish one.Amitabh Sinha: The Gaganyaan is yet to happen. When you were selected for it, this was just before Covid and Axiom was not on the horizon. There were many delays. At any point, did you think that probably this is not going to happen?Yeah, that is what was happening. Even in well-established programmes, like the United States and the Russian ones, the average time before an astronaut flies to space is around five to six years. Some astronauts have been selected and never flown. That also happens. So, there is no certainty that you will get to fly. Anything can change in a moment. That is why it was important to enjoy what you are doing when you are not flying.Story continues below this adEven now, after this flight has happened, I do not know when the next one is. If you look at the career of an astronaut, they probably fly two to three times to space, and if they are flying from the US, it is for six months at a time. So, about three times is 1.5 years. Now, for a career that spans 40 years, 1.5 years is the time that is spent in space. The rest 38.5 years is on the ground. So, if you do not enjoy that, then it is very difficult.Amitabh Sinha: Our Gaganyaan programme is scheduled in the next year or two. Have you transformed into a trainer of sorts for your colleagues?Not for my colleagues because we all went to Russia together, we were trained there. They, too, are experienced pilots in the Air Force. Actually, I am the junior most among the four of them. One of them came to the US as well for the Axiom Mission and underwent training. But yes, there are lessons to be learned.The primary objective of doing the Axiom Mission 4 was to learn as much as we could and then how do we use that experience to enable our own mission. That is a major exercise that we are doing right now.On an astronaut’s career graph | An astronaut flies two to three times in his life. From the US, it is six months at a time. About three times is 1.5 years. For a career of 40 years, the rest 38.5 years is on the ground. So, you have to enjoy what you doStory continues below this adAmitabh Sinha: Do you see any difference in the way Axiom was preparing itself and the way ISRO has been doing it? Are there any noticeable differences?Axiom Space is a private company which was coordinating missions to space. It didn’t actually own any hardware for the missions. The International Space Station is owned by NASA and its international partners. The vehicle in which we flew to space was SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle and the rocket was Falcon 9. So that was owned by SpaceX. Axiom did not own any hardware. What ISRO is doing is we are trying to make our own hardware: the capsule, the spacecraft in which the astronauts will go. So it’s a very different nature of work. Here, we are trying to make it in-house and launch Indian astronauts on our own vehicle and in our own capsule. This is heavy engineering work, and robust processes and review mechanisms are being set up. So, it can’t be compared. Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla during the Idea Exchange on Thursday, August 12.(Express photo by Renuka Puri)Anonna Dutt: What are the learnings from your journey that have brought in changes to processes in the Gaganyaan Mission?These are such complex processes that it is very difficult to put a finger on something. I travelled to space but there was a team from ISRO which was also there to see how things were happening. We witnessed this end-to-end execution of the entire mission. ISRO has launched many successful missions in the past but human spaceflight is something that we are attempting for the first time and it requires a different ecosystem. We were able to see the scale of operations and what the different disciplines are that we need to address before we actually send people to space and bring them back. That is the biggest learning. There are obviously more segmented, pointed, objective lessons that are being applied, there are so many.Story continues below this adP Vaidyanathan Iyer: How do you look at life on Earth from space?When you look back at Earth, from that perspective, it does change something in you. Even in aviation, you never see Earth as a whole. The first feeling that I got — everybody may have different experiences — but the first feeling that I got in space was that this felt like home. The planet felt like home. It really gave me that perception that I am from here. I am not pinpointing India. I am saying that I am from Earth. That was a very strong feeling I had. Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (right) with Amitabh Sinha, Climate and Science Editor, The Indian Express, at the Noida. (Express photo by Renuka Puri)The second thing, the vastness. Earth is massive. We know the dimensions but we have not seen it. So when you see that, it feels very big. But if you think about it, it is not the biggest planet. You can fit 1,300 Earths in Jupiter. And our solar system is not the biggest one in our galaxy. And our galaxy is not the biggest in the cluster that we are in. The cluster is not the biggest in the supercluster. So you can go on and on till the end of the universe. So your position, actually where you are, is very average, there is nothing special about this. So, the thought of the vastness of space is overwhelming.What earth felt like from space | The first feeling I got in space was that this felt like home. The planet felt like home, that I am from here. I am not pinpointing India on the planet. I am saying that I am from Earth. That was a very strong feelingAmitabh Sinha: Most of us were very young when Rakesh Sharma went to space, and we heard his famous line, ‘Sare Jahan Se Accha’. Was it at the back of your mind that you also had to come up with something which everyone remembers?Story continues below this adYes, of course it was there, and even today when I speak to Sir (Rakesh Sharma), I tell him that he made my life so difficult by saying something so profound. When I was speaking from space, I was aware of the enormity of the situation. I had written a few lines but sometimes those moments are so overwhelming that you forget everything. I just spoke whatever was coming to my mind. There was no competition to say something as profound as him, but the primary feeling was this: It has taken us 40 years to reach here but this time it is different. It won’t take us this long to be back in space again. India has changed a lot from what it was in 1984, our position has changed, things have changed. Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla during the Idea Exchange on Thursday, August 12.(Express photo by Renuka Puri)Amitabh Sinha: You mention in your book that the stay at ISS was very busy and you seldom had time to enjoy the view. Are there certain things that couldn’t do on ISS that you would like to do on the Gaganyaan flight?Several things, but the nature of the mission will also be very different. The ISS mission was known, established, doing experiments and coming back. Gaganyaan will be a prototype mission. It will be more about proving the technology, testing out systems and communicating with the ground. But yes, if there is time and things that can be planned, I would definitely do a lot of things very differently.Amitabh Sinha: More photography?Absolutely. And I would not plan the mission during monsoons because you don’t get to see India at all.Story continues below this adAnuradha Mascarenhas: The NDA (National Defence Academy) is known for physically and mentally demanding exercises. Were there any particular drills that you disliked as a cadet but today you are grateful for?There are two types of fun in life. There is Type A fun and Type B. Type A fun is when you are having fun in the moment, and later when you think about that experience, you still enjoy it because it was so memorable. Type B fun is where when you are doing it, you absolutely hate it. But when you look back, you really enjoy it. The NDA experience is Type B fun, most of it. It prepared you for life. That is what actually takes you to the extremes of what you think is possible. Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (right) with Amitabh Sinha, Climate and Science Editor, The Indian Express, at the Noida. (Express photo by Renuka Puri)Jayashree Narayanan: What is your message for Gen Z and Gen Alpha who are watching you?The kids, from what I have seen, are brilliant. The way their thought process works, there are no restraints on them. There are no boundaries within which they feel they have to think. That is why they have been able to break free. And that is very important for us as a nation because the first step to achieving something big is to dream about it.Story continues below this adThe second part of it is that dreaming is just one aspect. You have to really be with that dream for a long time and work on it, then only will it happen. It doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t happen in one or two days. Whatever they want to do or achieve, they will have to give it time and they will have to give it effort for a sustained period.Divyanshu Dutta Roy: The younger generation is often said to be chasing instant gratification. Would you make a case to children and teenagers to follow your path instead, which is a path of rigour, diligence and discipline?I think everyone understands what it requires to get to the place where you want yourself to be. You have to like what you are doing. Then it doesn’t feel like a burden. Sometimes, you might not like certain things but are forced to carry on. That is where discipline comes in.Instant gratification is probably one of the biggest challenges that the current generation is facing. Patience levels are dropping. It happens to us also. In our times, the challenge was of scarcity. Things were not available. Today, the problem is of abundance. Everything is available. So, there is a lot of distraction, and the challenge is to focus on your goals. That is a skill that has to be developed. You saw the Skyroot launch which happened recently. This work has been happening for the past decade. Those 10 years are very important for this exciting time. You have to invest time, there is no other way. You can temporarily become famous overnight, but that is not going to sustain. You have to do something meaningful for a long time for it to be really effective.Shalini Langer: Once you’ve seen space, what do you think of God?I’ve always believed that there has to be some sense to what is happening around us. For instance, you don’t realise as we are sitting in this room, you are moving at a speed of around 30 kilometres per second. Your solar system is probably moving at around 700 kilometres per second at the same time. Now, this entire thing is explained by science. But even that understanding is limited because science itself is evolving. So I believe that there must be something which is making all this happen, and we should be grateful for what we have, and that is what makes your life peaceful and good. The experience of space definitely has strengthened my belief in the things that I used to believe even before going to space.Shalini Langer: What about people who are paying to go to space, space tourists?I hope more and more people go to space and the cost comes down so that more people can experience this — going out and looking at Earth from the outside. Because fundamentally, things do change when you have that perspective and change for the better. Change in the sense that you really feel that you are all in this together — this is your planet and you have a responsibility towards it. So, if you are able to get that perspective, if 100 people can get it, great. If 1,000 people can get it, even better. So it should happen. But again, you have to be very responsible in doing it.Karishma Verma: After your mission, your mother’s reaction went very viral. So what was that conversation after the mission that you had with your mother?She could not come to Delhi because of health reasons. When I went to Lucknow for the first time (after my return), the first words that came out of her were: “Beta ab ho gaya hai. Dobara mat jaana (It’s done, don’t go again).”Shiny Varghese: Space technology has given us carbon water filters and GPS systems. What new technology did you wish you could have back home?The water reclamation system on the International Space Station recycles about 98 per cent of the water. And so you really don’t have to carry a lot of water to space. This would be something that if we can scale it up and use it on Earth as well, it would be a huge benefit to all of us. Conserving water and using it more resourcefully, that is something that we can do with a lot more of.Amitabh Sinha: You have worked in teams at the IAF. How was working with the Axiom team different, given that everyone was from a different country? What were your learnings?I learned the importance of being a follower, and to learn from others. At IAF, and everywhere else, we are taught how to be leaders. And that is good. But I think, it is important also to be able to listen to others, learn from their experiences and probably unlearn a few things of your own.