Bengaluru, 25 Nov

Indian astronaut and Gaganyatri Subhanshu Shukla on Tuesday called upon students to achieve 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 who steps on the lunar surface, the IAF Group Captainsaid aspiring astronauts would have to compete with him.

"India is on its own path of executing human space missions, and the latest space vision was the policy brought out in 2023. It clearly lays down that the country will execute mission Gaganyaan, which is sending some humans to space and bringing 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, the one 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 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 our 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 enthusiasm being created around the space sector in the country.

Shukla assured that he would always be available to be involved in all future projects, saying that this was one of the mandates of his job.

The astronaut said the aim was to see India as a developed nation under ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047, and that this goal would be achieved in due course.

In this regard, he called upon the student fraternity to be active participants and think that they, as individuals, would take India from here to being Viksit Bharat in 2047 "because it is going to be your time, not ours".