'Josh was truly high': Shubhanshu Shukla's wife shares behind-the-scenes video of his journey to space
Shubhanshu Shukla
became the first Indian to embark on a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). However, this achievement goes far beyond a single day in orbit. Offering a glimpse into the personal side of this historic feat, his wife, Kamna Shubha Shukla, shared insights into the intense preparation and dedication that preceded the mission.
After weeks of anticipation and six consecutive delays, India witnessed a proud moment on June 25 when its latest crewed mission finally lifted off into space. The launch, originally scheduled for June 8, had faced repeated setbacks.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by ColorsTV (@colorstv)
'But with each delay — six in total, a quiet anxiety began to creep in. The initial energy slowly gave way to cautious hope, and over time, most friends left as the delays stretched on. Yet we held on, hoping, praying, counting down again and again,' said Kamna Shukla through a post on Instagram.
The final call came on June 23, and the family rushed to Florida, arriving by June 24, as the spacecraft was scheduled to liftoff the next day. Unlike the first attempt, the viewing area was quieter, with only close family remaining, carrying a single question, 'will it happen this time?' said Kamna Shukla through the post.
'But as the launch drew near, all the wariness melted away. The tension transformed into sheer pride and excitement during the waving-off ceremony.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
No annual fees for life
UnionBank Credit Card
Apply Now
Undo
The crew was ready. The energy was electric. The josh was truly high,' she said.
The launch took place late at night, and the couple's young son, Sid, fell asleep but was woken up as the rocket ignited. 'That's a sun, Mumma!' the boy said.
Shortly after reaching orbit, Shukla's message 'Jai Hind, Jai Bharat' resonated across mission control and among millions following the event in India.
After an 18-day scientific mission aboard the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) spacecraft, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla returned to Earth on July 15.
The Dragon spacecraft was carrying Shukla and fellow crew members, Commander Peggy Whitson, ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, and Tibor Kapu made a journey back home lasting approximately 22 hours.
'It almost seems magical to me…It has been a fantastic journey for me,' Shubhanshu said. 'Even today, Bharat looks 'saare jahan se accha' from above,' he added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hans India
36 minutes ago
- Hans India
New study reveals rich bird diversity in State
Hyderabad: Ina significant contribution to Indian ornithology, a newly published research paper by Prof. Chelmala Srinivasulu from Osmania University and Sriram Reddy from Hyderabad Birding Pals has thoroughly documented 452 species of birds across Telangana. This research represents one of the most comprehensive avifaunal checklists ever compiled for the state. Published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on Saturday, the study provides critical insights into Telangana's bird diversity, including rare sightings and first records for India, such as the Spur-winged Lapwing. It also emphasizes the presence of globally threatened species like the Critically Endangered Indian Vulture and the Lesser Florican, highlighting the region's significance for bird conservation. 'Birds are excellent indicators of environmental health,' said Prof. Srinivasulu, a leading wildlife biologist at Osmania University. 'Our work not only corrects outdated records but also showcases Telangana's hidden biodiversity-rich areas—from wetlands to forests and from grasslands to urban lakes.' Co-author and citizen scientist Sriram Reddy added, 'This checklist is not just for scientists. It is for every nature lover, student, and amateur birder. We invite people from all walks of life to embrace birdwatching—not just as a hobby, but as a meaningful connection to our natural heritage.' The paper is the culmination of decades of field observations, historic record reviews, and data contributed by the community. The authors acknowledge the vital role played by amateur birders, researchers, and platforms such as eBird and iNaturalist. 'We urge citizens to appreciate and protect the birds around them. Policymakers need to collaborate with researchers and experts to prioritize habitat identification and conservation. Our bird diversity and populations are declining due to various direct and indirect threats, making it imperative to nurture a new generation of bird lovers,' added Prof. Srinivasulu. 'It is a highly dedicated piece of work that reflects the passion and years of observation by two committed birders,' said Prof. Kumar Molugaram, Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University. 'The university community greatly appreciates the outcome of this research,' he added. Birdwatching isn't just about observing birds—it's about experiencing the world through a lens of curiosity and care.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
You won't believe this overlooked cause can be behind heart failure; new study unveils shocking results
A new study has discovered that hearing impairment often results in an increased risk of heart failure in human beings. According to the study, psychological distress caused by hearing impairment plays a 'notable' role in developing problems with the heart. Experts in China analyzed data from the UK Biobank, studying 164,431 people who took hearing tests designed to determine hearing ability for the research. Out of all participants, about 160,062 didn't use hearing aids . Heart failure happens when the heart cannot pump blood effectively, leading to symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, and swelling in the legs and ankles. According to the Independent, test participants were split into three groups based on how they performed in a digit triplet test (DTT), which checks for hearing issues by using random digit combinations against the background noise. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Please select course: Select a Course Category Digital Marketing CXO Data Science healthcare Design Thinking Others Project Management Operations Management Public Policy Technology Healthcare MBA Leadership Product Management MCA Degree Data Analytics PGDM Finance Artificial Intelligence Management Data Science others Cybersecurity Skills you'll gain: Digital Marketing Strategies Customer Journey Mapping Paid Advertising Campaign Management Emerging Technologies in Digital Marketing Duration: 12 Weeks Indian School of Business Digital Marketing and Analytics Starts on May 14, 2024 Get Details Skills you'll gain: Digital Marketing Strategy Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Content Marketing Social Media Marketing & Advertising Data Analytics & Measurement Duration: 24 Weeks Indian School of Business Professional Certificate Programme in Digital Marketing Starts on Jun 26, 2024 Get Details It is pertinent to mention that, none of the people included in the initial analysis had heart failure, but over more than 11 years of follow-up, about 4,449 developed the condition. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Play War Thunder now for free War Thunder Play Now Undo What did the research find Following the study, the researchers discovered that those who had a higher speech reception threshold (SRT), meaning they required louder speech to understand words, had an increased risk of heart failure. 'Compared with those with normal hearing, participants with insufficient hearing, poor hearing, or hearing aid use had higher heart failure risks,' researchers were quoted by The Independent as saying. Live Events Among people who didn't use hearing aids, high SRT levels were also linked to psychological distress, social isolation, and neuroticism. 'We have been the first to demonstrate that poor hearing ability is significantly associated with a higher risk of incident heart failure in the general population,' the researchers further stated. 'Psychological factors, especially psychological distress, play a significant mediating role in this association. If further confirmed, hearing impairment may be a potential risk factor or marker for incident heart failure in the general population, highlighting the importance of integrating hearing health assessments into broader cardiovascular risk evaluation frameworks. Moreover, strengthening psychological intervention in people with hearing impairment may be an important path and strategy to reduce the risk of heart failure,' they continued.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Unique space radar will track earth's every shake & shift
Built By Isro & Nasa, This Satellite Could Become Our Planet's Early Warning System For Floods, Crop Loss, Coastal Erosion Our planet is constantly changing. The ground shifts, often unnoticed. Glaciers inch forward, coastlines retreat and forests thin or thicken with the seasons. Some of these changes unfold slowly. Others strike without warning. On Wednesday, July 30, a satellite called Nisar (Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar ), the first joint satellite mission for the two space agencies, will lift off to track these movements. It will scan the Earth's surface every 12 days, capturing changes as small as a few centimetres. Each pixel will represent an area roughly half the size of a tennis court. The data Nisar will gather will serve a variety of purposes — it will warn of flooding, coastline erosion, guide realtime disaster response, improve food security and even track ships. It will be one of the most advanced Earth-observation satellites ever to go up. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Indonesia: Unsold Sofas Prices May Surprise You (Prices May Surprise You) Sofas | Search Ads Search Now Undo Beaming to villages Nisar's launch also comes 50 years after India and US collaborated on a very different kind of project: the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment, or SITE. Launched a month after then PM Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency, SITE began broadcasting on Aug 1, 1975 to community TV sets in 2,400 villages across Karnataka, Rajasthan, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. It was seen as a mutually beneficial deal for Nasa and Isro. At the time, 40% of India's population was in villages with fewer than 3,000 people, and a quarter were in hamlets with fewer than 200. Traditional infrastructure alone couldn't reach them, but space tech could. So, an agreement was made: The US would supply its ATS-6 telecommunications satellite for a test run; India would build the ground infrastructure. The experiment was a success. SITE reached around 2 lakh people, helped train 50,000 science teachers in primary schools and beamed advice to thousands of farmers, becoming 'the largest sociological experiment in the world'. Before SITE, India and US had worked together in space for close to a decade, but this was the first time their efforts touched lives. 50 years apart 'It took 50 years from one major joint project in communications and broadcasting to another project on Earth observation,' former Isro deputy director Arup Dasgupta, who led deployment of SITE's receivers, told TOI. He said Nisar's launch showed how much Isro had progressed. 'Fifty years ago, we used a Nasa satellite to beam educational programmes. Today, we are launching their payload along with our own Synthetic Aperture Radar on an Indian launcher.' Nisar has been described by Nasa-JPL project scientist Paul Rosen as 'a storyteller of Earth's changing surface'. The satellite will capture motion of land, ice, water and vegetation across seasons, which means data for seismologists, climatologists, agriculturists, conservationists and many others. And the information will be freely available to them. A dual-band instrument Equipped with dual radar systems — the L-band by Nasa and Sband by Isro — Nisar can see through clouds and observe Earth day or night. It will scan the Himalayas, beaches of California, the Amazon rainforest and the farms of Punjab — not just once, but repeatedly, creating a time series of surface changes that show what has shifted, where and how fast.'It lets us read Earth's surface like a series of moving frames,' Rosen said. 'Using SAR, we can measure ground displacement down to even millimetre precision.' The longer-wavelength L-band penetrates vegetation and interacts with features such as rocks and tree trunks. Shorter S-band captures surface details like leaves and topsoil. Combined, they allow scientists to view the same landscape through two different lenses, revealing structure and change. 'A dual-band SAR like this has never flown before. L-band opens up deeper imaging and new interferometric applications. You can track deformation, subsidence, and seismic shifts in much finer detail,' said professor PG Diwakar of the National Institute of Advanced Studies. One major focus will be the Himalayas. 'We've never had such a tool for studying Himalayan snow, glaciers and lake systems. Nisar will let us observe how glacial lakes evolve — critical for understanding GLOF (glacial lake outburst flood) risk,' Diwakar said. L-band's ability to see below the canopy also improves forest assessments. For farmers, it will help forecast yields and assess crop loss. In disaster-prone areas, Nisar's interferometric accuracy will boost early detection, measuring ground shifts over wide regions. It will even aid during oil spills. 'This will be the first mission between US and India to observe Earth in such a detailed way,' said Nicola Fox, associate administrator, Nasa science mission directorate. Roots in 1978 Nisar's roots go back to a breakthrough launch in 1978, when Nasa put in orbit Seasat — the world's first satellite with SAR. The mission lasted only 105 days, but the data this satellite produced reshaped Earth observation. Now, nearly 50 years after Seasat, Nisar is set to go up and stay there for at least three years, generating more data daily than any other previous remote-sensing satellite. For India, which will handle its launch, the satellite deepens its scientific engagement with the world. For Nasa, it extends an Earth observation legacy. Together, they have created something greater than the sum of their parts — a satellite that watches Earth not as a snapshot, but as a breathing, evolving whole.
