Overview
- Speaking at the Pune Literature Festival on December 21, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla urged students to aim for space careers and set their sights on the Moon.
- Shukla said experiments conducted during his Axiom-4 stay on the International Space Station will guide India’s plans for a national space station.
- He outlined ongoing ambitions that include preparing for the Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, developing a Bharatiya space station, and targeting a Moon landing by 2040.
- He said India is setting up an Advanced Astronaut Training Centre, a developing plan reported from his remarks without formal confirmation noted in the coverage.
- He flew to the ISS on June 25 and returned July 15 after 18 days, with media accounts differing on whether to describe him as the first Indian on the ISS or the second Indian in space.