Aim for the moon, compete with me: Shubhanshu tells students

Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on Tuesday called upon students to pursue the ambition of setting up a space station and landing on the moon.

Curious to see whether it will be a man or a woman from the country to step on the lunar surface, the IAF Group Captain said the aspiring astronauts will have to compete with him.

“India is on its own path of executing human space missions and the latest space vision was the policy which was brought out in 2023. It clearly lays down that the country will execute mission Gaganyaan, which is sending some humans to space, bring them back,” the IAF test pilot, part of the Gaganyaan mission, said during an interaction with students.

Gaganyaan is the country’s maiden human spaceflight programme.

“We will also have our own space station, Bharatiya Antariksh (space) Station, which is being built right now. It is under discussion, and then eventually an Indian landing on the Moon by 2040,” Shukla added.

“I am sure one of you would be possibly you know, who sets foot on the moon, he or she? But I’m still here. I’m not going, so you will have to compete with me. You know, to go to the moon, we will be in competition,” he told the gathering.

Explaining that this was an exciting time to be in India, he said, “We are launching from our own soil on our own launch vehicle, in her own capsule, and an Indian will go to space and come back (Gaganyaan). I think it’s a magnificent time to be here in this country.”

Stating that the future of India is “really bright” he said he is happy and excited to see the kind of enthusiasm that is being created around the space sector in the country. Shukla assured that he would always be available to be involved in all the future projects, saying that this was one of the mandates and job.

The astronaut said that the aim is to see India as a developed nation under ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047, and that this goal will be achieved on its own.

In this regard, he called upon the student fraternity to be an active participant and think that they as individuals will take India from here to being Vikasit Bharat in 2047, “because it is going to be your time, not ours”.