India has no shortage of achievers who have brought glory to the nation, yet only a handful of stories truly stand out, and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s journey is one of them. On the eve of Republic Day 2026, President Droupadi Murmu approved the Ashok Chakra for the Indian Air Force officer-turned-astronaut, making him the first astronaut to receive India’s highest peacetime gallantry award. The honour recognises not only military valour but also extraordinary courage displayed beyond Earth’s atmosphere, reinforcing that bravery is not limited to battlefields but extends to the extreme frontiers of space exploration.
Born in Lucknow, Shubhanshu Shukla’s journey began at the age of 17 when he applied to the National Defence Academy using a friend’s form, inspired by the Kargil War and an Indian Air Force airshow, without informing his parents, as noted on his school’s official website. Commissioned into the IAF in 2006, he built an exceptional career as a fighter pilot, accumulating over 2,000 flying hours on aircraft including the Su-30MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar and Hawk. He later became a test pilot and combat leader, earning a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from IISc Bengaluru.
In 2019, ISRO selected Shukla for India’s ambitious Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, marking a major turning point in his career. This led to rigorous astronaut training at Russia’s Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, followed by specialised training sessions conducted by ISRO and NASA. According to India Today, he was shortlisted as one of the four final candidates for the programme. His progress symbolised the revival of India’s human spaceflight ambitions, ending a 41-year gap since Rakesh Sharma’s historic mission in 1984 and inspiring millions across the country.
Shukla was awarded the Ashok Chakra for his “conspicuous bravery” and “exemplary courage” during the high-risk Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station. Piloting SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Grace,” he launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center between June 25 and 26, 2025. Serving as ISRO’s sole representative, he spent 18 days aboard the ISS with a multinational crew led by veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson. The mission involved complex orbital manoeuvres where even a single miscalculation could have proved catastrophic, underlining the extraordinary risk and responsibility involved.
He is only the second Indian astronaut to receive the Ashok Chakra after Captain Rakesh Sharma, India’s first space traveller, who was conferred with the honour in 1985 for his exemplary service and contribution to India’s historic human spaceflight mission aboard the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. During the Ax-4 mission, Shukla led seven Indian scientific experiments covering space anaemia, cardiovascular health in microgravity, alloy solidification, protein crystal growth for drug development and life-support systems.
The data generated from these studies will directly support the Gaganyaan mission planned for 2027, which aims to place three astronauts in a 400-kilometre orbit for a three-day mission. Shukla returned safely to Earth on July 15, 2025, and later shared his experiences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is now working on enhancing crew module safety through Test Vehicle Abort Missions, training future Vyomanauts and refining human-machine interfaces using lessons from the ISS, positioning him as a key figure in India’s first independent human spaceflight.