Shubhanshu Shukla

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is an Indian Air Force test pilot and one of the four astronaut designates who will fly to space as part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.
Shukla hails from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his schooling from City Montessori School. When the Kargil War happened in 1998, he was so inspired to join the Indian Armed Forces. Without informing his family, he filled the form of NDA exam and passed it. After that he completed the Cadet Basic Training and the mandatory three-year B.Tech course in Engineering at the National Defence Academy in 2005. Following this, he was selected for the flying branch and joined the Indian Air Force Academy for air force flying training and the fourth year of his B.Tech degree. After graduating from the AFA in June 2006, he was commissioned into the Fighter stream of the Indian Air Force with the rank of Flying officer.
He is a combat leader and seasoned test pilot with about 2,000 hours of flying experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier 228, and An-32.
Shukla was included in the astronaut selection process in 2019 by the Institute of Aerospace Medicine (IAM), an organization under the Indian Air Force for the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. Later, he was shortlisted in the final four by IAM and ISRO. In 2020, He went to Russia for basic training with three other selected astronauts at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Basic training was completed in 2021. He then returned to India and attended training at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bangalore. During this time period, he completed his Master of Technology degree from IISc Bangalore in Aerospace Engineering.
His name as a member of the astronaut team was first officially announced in public on 27 February 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the names of the astronaut team members for India's first space mission at ISRO's Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
Shukla has been selected as the pilot for the upcoming Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station, joining a crew led by commander Peggy Whitson and mission specialists, Polish/ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu. Additionally, Prasanth Nair, a fellow member of the 1st Vyomnaut Group, has been designated as the backup crew member. The mission, conducted in collaboration with NASA, SpaceX, and ISRO, aims to advance international spaceflight cooperation. If successful, Shukla will become the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS and the second Indian in orbit, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma. The cost of Shukla's seat on the mission has been quoted as being in the "mid-$60-million range" (around 500 crore rupees).
Shukla is married to Dr. Kamna, a dentist by profession, and the couple has a four-year-old son. His father, Shambhu Dayal Shukla, is a retired government officer, while his mother, Asha Shukla, is a homemaker. He is the youngest of three siblings; his elder sister, Nidhi, holds an MBA degree, and his other elder sister, Suchi, works as a school teacher. In his leisure time, Shukla enjoys engaging in Physical Exercise, reading books on science and space, and has recently developed an interest in horoscope, despite identifying as agnostic.