00:00Group captain Shubanshi Shukla, who created history by becoming the first Indian to visit the International Space Station,
00:06has been awarded the Ashok Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award.
00:13In June last year, Shukla became the second Indian to have gone to space
00:17and the first one to set foot on the ISS as part of the Axiom Formation.
00:24And Shivani Sharma continues to be with us.
00:27Shivani, the highest peacetime award for Shubanshi Shukla.
00:33Certainly, this is a great achievement for group captain Shubanshi Shukla,
00:38who happens to be the first Indian to be there.
00:43And he has the experience of 2,000 hours, impressive fighter pilot,
00:48who's now been conferred with this Ashok Chakra, the highest gallantry award for peacetime award.
00:54And we also know that he is, in fact, among the Indians who have gone to space.
01:00He's the second after Rakesh Sharma also of the Indian Air Force,
01:04who was there for four decades earlier.
01:08And now he has been awarded the Ashok Chakra.
01:11He is a distinguished pilot, Anjali, and he has contributed to the service of the nation
01:18by flying Su-30, MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier and AN-32.
01:24So now, the approval has come from the President
01:27when the announcement has been done for the gallantry award for 70 armed forces personnel
01:32and group captain Shubanshi Shukla happens to be one of them.
01:35Right, that's absolutely true.
01:37Thank you very much, Shivani, for all those details.
01:39Earlier, Shubanshi Shukla, India's first astronaut to visit the International Space Station or the ISS,
01:47spoke at the India Today Conclave Mumbai in 2025, sharing his extraordinary journey in space.
01:54He described the experience as out of this world, of course,
01:58and offered insights into life aboard the ISS,
02:02the challenges of space travel and the inspiration it brings to future generations.
02:06Listen in to hear his first-hand account of India's giant leap into space.
02:12You've not only touched the sky with glory, you've touched space with glory,
02:17you've brought glory to the nation.
02:19What's, you know, your biggest achievement, if I may,
02:26or experience that you want to share with us about this journey?
02:29The experience that I want to share, like, actually kind of just, you know, we saw that.
02:33I think that's the best way to concisely capture the experience that I had in these 20 days.
02:40But if there is one thing that I felt, you know, there's a short clip in this video
02:46where you see me standing with the Indian flag behind.
02:49That was the day I was speaking to the Honorable Prime Minister of our country.
02:53I think that is the message that I would like to convey to everyone,
02:56that today, in 2025, the Indian flag reached the International Space Station for the first time.
03:01And there was a person who was conversing in Hindi to the Indian leader who is running the country right now.
03:08I think that was very powerful for me and was a strong message that we were giving to the world
03:13that, you know, we are here and this time we are here to stay.
03:17Describe to us, describe to us what was like living at the International Space Station and the size.
03:25How big is the International Space Station?
03:27It is big. It is, what is said is, it is equivalent to a six BHK house.
03:33You know, that's the kind of space it is available.
03:35But the main difference, I would say, is that the concept of space for you changes when you go to space.
03:43Like, this is essentially a 3D room.
03:46You know, we have walls, we have ceilings, we have intervening space in between.
03:50But we are still 2D creatures.
03:52Like, we will walk on the floor, we will sit on a chair and this is...
03:55But if this was to be replicated in space, you know, half of you would be sitting on the ceiling.
03:59Half of you would be on the wall and I would be sitting.
04:00So it is all distributed.
04:02You utilize the space in a very different way.
04:04So the mind switches from utilization of space from a 2D to 3D concept.
04:09Another example I would give you, which is very unique and interesting to me,
04:12is when you go to the microgravity for the first time,
04:16your brain is still geared up for gravity.
04:19So everything is falling at the same time.
04:22That is how you experience microgravity.
04:23So nothing is falling relatively.
04:25So if I was in a space station and I was to leave this mic here,
04:29it would stay here, it would not fall.
04:32But this, you don't get used to this when you go to space.
04:35So I remember in the first few days, if I'm sitting and I'm holding something and I have to work,
04:39I would find someone, can you hold this for me?
04:41And I would give them the mic and they would also hold because they are also traveling to space for the first time.
04:46Now what happens is over a period of days, 7-8 days, you get used to this.
04:50That, you know, you can leave stuff and it will not fall.
04:52It will be right there.
04:53So you leave stuff, you do whatever you have to, pick it up and then go.
04:58And the problem is you come back to Earth.
05:01So when you come back to Earth, I remember the first night I was sitting on my bed
05:05and I was working on the laptop.
05:07And it was very instinctive, you know, and I just closed the laptop.
05:11and I just took it to the side and I left it.
05:16And as soon as I left it, I realized this is an ISRO-issued laptop.
05:23Fortunately, you know, nothing happened.
05:24This was carpeted.
05:25But I'm saying this switch, the environment is so different.
05:27You know, it is, the brain gets used to that.
05:31And then you have to rewire it to understand the environment, which is how different it is.
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