Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, who became the second space traveller from the country in June last year by travelling to space as the mission pilot of Axiom Mission 4, said on Tuesday that harnessing space for global progress requires international collaboration.
“People from different parts of the world came together and worked towards a common cause to accomplish the mission I was part of. It was truly heartening to witness this spirit of cooperation, which is an inherent strength of the space sector,” said Group Captain Shukla, addressing a special session at the ninth edition of the Bengaluru Space Expo (BSX) 2026, being organised by the CII in association with ISRO till Wednesday.
Group Captain Shukla said that international collaboration would remain essential as the world seeks to harness space for the benefit of humanity. “The strongest feeling one experiences when seeing the Earth from space is that Earth is home. It is not the country or the city, but planet Earth that becomes your identity,” he remarked.
Shukla pointed out that the successful orbital launch of a privately developed rocket is a monumental event for the country. “We have some very important missions ahead, including the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, and lunar landing missions. Against the backdrop of these national missions, India’s space sector is exploding. ISRO brings with it a rich heritage, decades of experience and deep technical expertise, while the private sector brings agility and the power of innovation. We need to bring these strengths together to accelerate the growth of India’s space sector,” he said.
Earlier, providing the opening remarks at the plenary session on “Human Spaceflight & Deep Space Exploration: The Next Frontier”, Biju S R, Director, Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC), ISRO, said that from developing a rocket that was capable of placing a 40-kg-class payload into low Earth orbit in 1980, ISRO has progressed to developing the LVM3, capable of carrying about 10 tonnes to LEO. With the Gaganyaan programme and other human spaceflight initiatives, ISRO is expanding its focus from space transportation to human space exploration.
“A crewed mission is a completely different paradigm. The centre is focused on all crew-related objectives, including astronaut selection and training, developing world-class facilities and creating simulation environments covering the entire mission — from lift-off to re-entry and return to Earth. We are also working on areas such as space medicine and developing habitation modules, while undertaking research into biological aspects and the effects of microgravity on humans,” he said.
S S Vinod, Project Director, Gaganyaan, ISRO, said that crew safety remains the foremost priority across every stage of the mission, from pre-launch and ascent to the on-orbit, descent and recovery phases. He said ISRO is developing human-rated launch vehicles, crew and service modules, advanced crew escape systems and integrated health-monitoring systems to ensure crew safety. He added that thermal and humidity control are critical technological challenges, particularly during atmospheric re-entry. The Gaganyaan Crew Module is equipped with a parachute-based deceleration system comprising 10 parachutes of four types, developed with support from DRDO, to bring the touchdown velocity down to about 8 m/s. ISRO has also established Gaganyaan Control Centres at Sriharikota and Bengaluru to support mission operations.
Air Commodore Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair KC, Indian Astronaut, ISRO, said the road ahead in human spaceflight could be viewed through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: from basic physiological needs and safety to belonging and self-esteem. He stressed the importance of meeting astronauts’ basic needs, including food, water, sanitation and spacesuits, while also ensuring robust communication with families on Earth, mechanisms for crew conflict resolution and appropriate space laws to ensure that space remains accessible to all nations and not dominated by any one entity.
Air Commodore Ravish Malhotra (Retd.), who was the backup cosmonaut for the 1984 Indo-Soviet space mission alongside Rakesh Sharma, said India’s space journey had come a long way — from having to travel to Moscow for its first human spaceflight to now preparing to send Indians into space on indigenous spacecraft launched from Indian soil using home-grown technology. He said the progress was remarkable and added that Gaganyaan would be followed by a series of crewed missions. With the planned establishment of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035, he said, the Indian space sector would undergo a transformational change.
