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New Delhi, Jun 25 (PTI): IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh on Thursday lauded IAF Group Captain and astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and hoped that "more and more Shubhanshus come out" to enhance the glory of the force and the country.

He was addressing a gathering at the launch of Shukla's memoir, 'The Second Orbit', here.

In June 2025, Shukla became the first Indian astronaut to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom-4 mission.

"I just hope that...we have more and more Shubhanshus coming out. And very soon, he 'fades away'. People don't recognise him, because there are so many of us who have been there. I just pray that way.

"I know he's not going to like it because there'll be 20 people sharing his glory, but that's how it should happen. But, you still will remain, the first one, after such a long gap," the IAF chief said, lacing his remarks with a dash of humour.

Shukla's nearly 20-day space odyssey in 2025 had come 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma flew aboard a Russian Soyuz in April 1984.

Born in Lucknow on October 10, 1985, Shukla grew up as a "shy and reserved" person, hearing stories of the 1984 spaceflight of Sharma in his childhood days.

Last August, soon after his return from the ISS, Group Captain Shukla, Group Captain Prashanth B Nair, along with two other astronauts chosen for the Gaganyaan mission, were felicitated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the Air Force auditorium in Subroto Park here.

The air chief marshal recalling the selection of the four IAF officers, said, "Let me tell you, there were four of them. They are four of them, who joined the programme. All four have got trained, all four have gone through everything... Yes, he (Shukla) was the lucky one, I will say. Because, yes, he must have done well, he must have been the best amongst them, but there is a miniscule of a difference in that." "All four were selected. All four were good. All four are good. And, I hope they get a chance also to do this, soon. So, I just want to put it in perspective. It is not important as to what you achieve, where you land up, you know. It is the journey. The journey that is important. You enjoy the journey, you have aims. You must be ambitious. You must look up," he said.

The IAF chief, addressing the audience, which also included young members, lamented that "unfortunately, our system works on marks, works on scoring".

"I think somewhere we need to change this," he asserted. PTI KND KVK KVK

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