Shambhu Dayal Shukla felt pride and relief in equal measure as he saw his son Shubhanshu emerge from the Dragon Grace spacecraft after a splashdown off the San Diego coast in southern California on Tuesday, capping an 18-day space sojourn.
“If given an opportunity, I would have run and hugged him now. We will soon meet and party,” Shambhu, who was following on TV the Axiom-4 mission crew’s return to Earth after undocking from the International Space Station, said.
The Lucknow administration had organised a gathering at an auditorium in a school in Kanpur Road, where the Shukla family and their friends watched the event together.
Shubhanshu’s mother Asha was overcome with emotion and kept lifting her folded hands towards the sky in response to media questions. “Pray to the god,” she kept saying.
The astronaut’s two elder sisters — Nidhi and Shuchi Mishra — requested the media to give their mother some time to recover.
Asha had told reporters in the morning that Shubhanshu was easygoing and was always content with what he had.
“I don’t remember if he has ever demanded anything special to eat. And he also doesn’t share any of his achievements with us immediately. He had told us about the space mission four days after his selection,” she said.
Shubhanshu’s father said he was thankful to the country for supporting them during his son’s journey to space.
“He landed on Earth safely in the month of Shravan. I thank god for bringing him safely back to us,” Shambhu said. “We hope he will be reunited with us soon. We will organise parties,” he added.
Shubhanshu’s wife Kamna is currently in Florida. “Otherwise, Shubhanshu, Kamna and their six-year-old son Kiash live in Bangalore,” Shambhu said.
The family’s home in Triveni Nagar has been decked up with celebratory lights and posters of “Shux”, Shubhanshu’s call sign, hung outside the house.
Shambhu said he wanted his son to prepare for the Civil Services Examination, but he joined the National Defence Academy and became a commissioned officer in the Indian Air Force in 2006.
Shubhanshu, 39, completed his maiden space voyage as part of the Axiom-4 mission, a commercial spaceflight supported by Isro and Nasa, and operated by Axiom Space.