Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla bid farewell to the International Space Station on Sunday evening after spending 18 days orbiting earth. The Indian Air Force Group Captain delivered a stirring farewell speech during his final evening in space — reiterating the iconic words of cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma. Shukla is only the second Indian to reach space, following in the footsteps of Sharma after a gap of 41 years.
“Aaj ka Bharat abhi bhi saare jahaan se acha dikhta hai (Today’s India is still more splendid than the entire world). Aaj ka bharat space se mahatvakaanshi dikhta hai, aaj ka bharat space se nidar dikhta hai, aaj ka Bharat confident dikhta hai, aaj ka Bharat garv se poorn dikhta hai aur inhi sab kaarano ki vajah se aaj mai fir se keh sakta hoon ki aaj ka bharat abhi bhi saare jahaan se acha dikhta hai (Today’s India looks ambitious from space. Today’s India looks fearless, confident, and full of pride),” he said.
“Saare jahan se achcha,” Rakesh Sharma had famously told former PM Indira Gandhi in 1984 when she asked how India looked from outer space.
The Axiom 4 crew is set to touch down around 3:00 pm after spending more than 18 days in orbit conducting intense science experiments. They will undock around 4:30 pm after splashdown off the coast of California. The farewell addresses ended on an emotional note on Sunday evening as the crew members hugged each other. Shukla assured: “We will meet soon on earth”.
“It was an incredible joy to be here and working alongside a bunch of professionals like you. For the past two and a half weeks and so, we have done a lot of science on the station, we have done outreach activities. (We) also looked back at the earth in whatever time we found. We were always looking out of the window,” Shukla added during his farewell address.
“It almost seems magical to me and I would like to take this opportunity to thank my country and all its citizens for supporting this mission and me with all of their hearts. I would like to thank ISRO for making this happen, all the colleagues at ISRO who have worked tirelessly in developing all of the protocols, science and the outreach activities… the researchers back in India, the students who developed the outreach items that I carried”, he said.
“Going back from here I carry a lot of memories, and the learnings out of this mission that I would spread back, But the one thing that really sticks to me is what humanity is capable of when all of us come together from different parts of the world and work for a common goal. It is truly incredible”.