My brain forgot how to walk after coming back to earth: Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla

IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla

When astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla took his first steps back on Earth after returning from space, he could barely stand. “You can’t walk, you are swaying from left to right,” he recalled in his keynote address at the 28th Bangalore Tech Summit 2025.

“Your body has forgotten how to walk. Even if you have the strength, you won’t be able to walk. What has happened is that your mind has forgotten how much effort it takes for you to stand up.”

For India’s newest space hero, those few unsteady moments meant both the physical and mental challenges of spaceflight and the extraordinary adaptability of the human body.

Shukla, 40, is a Group Captain in the Indian Air Force and the first Indian to visit the International Space Station. A native of Lucknow, he is one of the four astronauts chosen by ISRO for the upcoming Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme, India’s first manned mission.

A graduate of the National Defence Academy and holder of an M.Tech in Aerospace Engineering from IISc Bengaluru, Shukla has logged more than 2,000 flight hours on advanced fighter aircraft including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-29, Jaguar and Hawk.

In February 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Shukla’s name as one of India’s four astronaut-designates.

At the summit, he described the crushing G-forces of launch, “Imagine a motorbike sitting on your chest,” in zero gravity, and the process of relearning simple human motions once gravity returned. “When you come back into gravity, your body again has forgotten how to walk,” he said. “It takes four to five days to adapt again.”

Also, read: India’s new man in space Shubhanshu Shukla and his role in the Axiom mission

He described watching India from orbit, glowing against the darkness and flanked by the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea.

“In the night, India emerges completely lit up,” he said. “It’s probably one of the most beautiful sights you would ever see in your life.”

VIDEO | Bengaluru: “Getting into space is fun... but it is also disorienting,” says astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla as he shares his experience aboard the Axiom-4 mission at BTS 2025. (Full video available on PTI Videos – https://t.co/n147TvrpG7) pic.twitter.com/73kvJg8Lu1

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) November 20, 2025