Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla shares space triumphs, humorous anecdotes at book launch
Astronaut and IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on Saturday (July 4 2026) reminisced about being aboard the International Space Station on this day last year
Astronaut and IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on Saturday (July 4 2026) reminisced about being aboard the International Space Station on this day last year, where he successfully completed a challenging STEM demonstration assigned by ISRO after struggling for five days. Speaking at the launch of his book, The Second Orbit: Belief of a Man… Dreams of 1.4 Billion Hearts here, Shukla, who became the first Indian to visit the ISS, said, "Today is July 4 and last year, this day I was not on Earth. I was in space on the International Space Station." On his time aboard the ISS, he recalled a STEM demonstration that he had been attempting for several days, in which ISRO had assigned him the task of creating a water bubble, injecting an air bubble inside it, and then injecting a coffee bubble inside the air bubble. "So three bubbles in space and I had been struggling for the past five days to do that. It was very difficult for me to just capture this water bubble and today (July 4 2025) was the day when I was successfully able to do it. I was so happy that this could finally be achieved on this day," Mr. Shukla said. Shukla was part of a four-member crew that spent 18 days aboard the ISS as part of NASA's Axiom-4 mission.
It marked the return of an Indian to space after four decades — Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma was the first to do so in 1984. The astronaut said he captured his first photograph of the entire Earth from the ISS through the cupola window using a special lens. He said that all these were possible only because of the efforts of a large team on the ground. "When we send or launch someone to space, it takes thousands of people, a huge team on ground and every single one of them matters. That is, in a sense, what this book is about, partly," he said. The IAF Group Captain said the book is "not a celebration of an individual achievement", but seeks to highlight that accomplishing something monumental requires people to work together as a team, and that teamwork ultimately defines "how far you go" and "what great accomplishments you can do". Shukla said he never thought that he would write a book when he landed back in India after the mission, but then he realised very soon that it was not possible for him to reach everywhere to share this story and probably writing a book would be a good way to share it. Sharing the funniest moment of his space mission, Mr. Shukla said that while space is an environment where "life should not exist", it also throws up amusing situations.
The BriefWire