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New Delhi: Finally, after a year of Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced Shubhanshu Shukla as an astronaut-designate for India’s Gaganyaan Mission. Group Captain has already left India at 12:01 PM to mark history on June 25, 2025, of the much-awaited and delayed mission due to technical reasons, today (Wednesday). Shubhanshu, the captain of the group, has himself into SpaceX’s reliable Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon-9 rocket for a lift-off scheduled later. On the 14-day journey, astronauts from the US, Poland and Hungary will join the expedition.

While on his journey, Shubanshu is carrying the AXIOM-4 mission badge along to represent himself, the nation and his love for space and represent India’s space ambition. Preparing this badge was a great journey, not only the designers, but Shubansshu himself had ideas and vision behind the making of it, which brought it to life. Manish Triapthi, the maker and designer of the Shubanshu badge, in conversation with News9live’s reporters, shared exclusive details of the badge and how it is brought to life, and also serves as a reminder of love and power for all of them.

Manish Tripathi shares his journey and timeline of the badge and bonding with Shubanshu Shukla.

Shubhanshu Shukla, who is known as Shux, is my school senior, and we hail from the same hometown. He was two years my senior, but we were never very close in school. Once he got chosen for this particular project, one of our common friends, Vishal, approached me and connected me with Shux. Shux made me understand what his vision was and what exactly he wanted me to do. He was very keen on doing something good and thoughtful — that’s when we got aligned, last August.

He is a great human being. While I began working on the project, my wife was in her third trimester. The first thing he would ask is about the well-being of the family. The day I had my daughter, he was the first person to message me to congratulate us.

The making of the Mission badge

Manish Tripathi shared his vision and discussion with Shubanshu for the badge and said, “It was a very rigorous process. We had a lot of video and Zoom meetings and went back and forth. We discussed the Indian space program. His vision was clearly to inspire future generations and motivate them to develop curiosity about space missions. While we were discussing, and now that India is becoming self-reliant in every aspect and has its own space program, I realised — like my designs — everything needs to have a purpose. ”

If you look at the mission badge, it has the Sun and Earth, and the Earth is shaped like an astronaut’s helmet. There’s Aryabhata — we are celebrating 50 years of the Aryabhata satellite. There’s a depiction of the Jantar Mantar, and there’s also a hint of the lunar mission.

Vision of the badge

I was given a brief by Shubhanshu that we have to inspire people, to show that India has its own space program. The badge is inspired by a postal stamp that signifies we are here to mark our presence. He is going up there to stamp India in space. Mathematical and astronomical symbols are also present. There’s a sign of infinity placed opposite the Sun, signifying that while we are here, we also want to know more.

If someone sees this mission badge after hundreds of years, they will know what we have done and what we aspired to do. We know, and we want to know more.

Timeline of the badge

We took almost four months. I did not use any advanced or fancy tools in designing the badge — no software. I kind of locked myself in a hotel room with my wife and used whatever objects were available — a cosmetic box, a comb, a room key, a basic pencil — no fancy paper.

Manish shared the idea that the badge was, when you push your limits, only then are you able to achieve something truly meaningful. That’s what I believe. Had I had all the resources, I don’t think I would have been able to achieve it. The reason is — the thought process gets limited, and you don’t think originally or authentically. I wanted it to look authentic, to have its own feel. Whoever sees it should be able to resonate with it.

This will be a signature moment — a very historic event — as our astronaut is going into space after Rakesh Sharma. And I know India is going places. I was privileged to design the mission badge.

Concluding the conversation, Manish shared that it was Shux who gave me the opportunity, trusted me, listened to me, and accepted my ideas. I’m not a scientist or an astronaut, but I went ahead with a simple thought in my mind and heart — that this was something to do with the nation and to create something that the world will look up to and identify us by, in space.