Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh on Sunday felicitated Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, Group Captain PB Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, and Group Captain Angad Pratap – the astronauts of ISRO’s maiden human spaceflight mission Gaganyaan – at a ceremony in New Delhi.
Calling the four “gems of the country,” the Defence Minister hailed them as pioneers of India’s aspirations in space. “We do not see space only as a field of research, but as the future of tomorrow’s economy, security, energy, and humanity,” he said.
Shri Rajnath Singh underscored India’s growing stature as a space power, highlighting past achievements like Chandrayaan and Mangalyaan, and describing Gaganyaan as a milestone in Aatmanirbhar Bharat. He said space technology today serves every village and farmer through satellites, weather forecasting, and disaster management, while the future lies in space mining, deep space exploration, and planetary resources.
The Defence Minister also lauded Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who recently returned from the International Space Station as part of Axiom Mission 4. He praised Shukla’s extraordinary feat of completing 2.5 years’ worth of astronaut training in just 2.5 months, calling him a “symbol of India’s determination and civil-military fusion.”
Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan and Air Chief Marshal AP Singh were present at the felicitation. Group Captain Shukla shared his experiences of space travel, underscoring the role of the Institute of Aerospace Medicine in preparing India’s astronauts for future missions.
