00:03:44 · Aditya Agarwal
[00:03:44] S1: You know, it's interesting. So a little bit about my background. So when I was 22 years old, I'd kind of gone to college and I'd gotten kind of this stable job. I'd gotten a job at Oracle in the Bay Area. My mom and dad were very happy. But then after six months of being at Oracle, I just was a little bit bored. And so my version of this was that I'd done... I met a young guy called Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg was seven, 19 years old. Facebook was four or five people. And then I just joined the company because I thought it would be more fun, and I was just following a sense of adventure, you know, in some ways. People today ask me, like, oh, did you know that Facebook was going to be successful? And I'm like, honestly, no. I had no clue. But I did kinda listen to the act of, like, following the calling for adventure. So I guess the question here, Shukla, is you've had the chance to meet those people who we choose as humanity to send into space, in some ways, are the elite of humanity. Right? Which is in the people who blend the rare combination of passion, drive, discipline. But do you think they all started with discipline in the beginning, or did they kind of follow the initial sign for just like, let's go do something crazy, like, and just follow the adventure? And then you have to have discipline. Absolutely. But what do you think the root is?
00:05:01 · Shubhanshu Shukla, Aditya Agarwal
[00:05:01] S0: I I don't think there is a simple answer to this. And, you know, if you're implying that, you know, I was always meant to go to space in Naviso, I don't think that that is... That that would be the right way to look at it. I I never thought I could be an astronaut. I never thought I could be a fighter pilot as well. I was very young. I remember I was in sixth grade and I happened to be visiting an air force base and I saw an air show. And these were fighters which were flying extremely low and as a kid, I was just mesmerised, you know, what is different world altogether? And all that I wished that day was, If only I can get five minutes in that cockpit. That is all that I wanted to do when I was that age. So, when you grow, I think it is always one step at a time. [00:05:42] S1: I totally agree
00:05:42 · Aditya Agarwal, Shubhanshu Shukla
[00:05:42] S1: I totally agree [00:05:43] S0: with Whenever you reach there, that is the time that you have to take the call. I think what happens with most of us is that we try to analyse the opportunity sitting in our growing rooms or on the sofa that we are there, whether this will work out, whether it is good for me, not good for me. And the truth is, no one knows. You don't know anybody else, nobody has an answer. And most of the times when we analyse, we reach the conclusion that probably it is not for us, and we give up on that. So I think that is what you were saying. Like you said, yes, you know, you said leave it, let's see how it is going to happen. I think the more number of times we say yes, the more the chances are that you'll find something extremely exciting to do. That is all, I would say. There is no thought to it.
00:06:24 · Aditya Agarwal
[00:06:24] S1: I mean, I strongly agree with this. I mean, at least, again, coming back at least to my own experience, I could have chosen a number of startups. I chose Facebook. I actually didn't know Facebook was going to be successful, but what I do know is that I chose a startup. Right? You have to kind of like get out there and make yourself a target for luck and then hopefully keep on taking short term goal. Right? And I think that what ends up happening is that too many people psych themselves out. Like, they find all of the reasons to, like, say no to something, but it just takes one good reason, like, to say yes. Right? You know, when you're kinda going through the crazy funnel to kinda become an astronaut. Right? Like, there's obviously... You have to start off... Are all astronauts technically... Not all astronauts are pilots. Right?
00:07:09 · Shubhanshu Shukla
[00:07:09] S0: No. No. Not all astronauts are pilots. So how it happens is that there are different phases of these missions. So, like, right now, India is pursuing our human space mission, that is Mission Gaganyaan, and this is going to be a prototype mission. This is the first time that we are going to do this. That means the capsule that we are going to make is going to be made for the first time, the service module that we will make will be the first time. This is the first time we will send a machine into space with humans. We have never done this before. So in these missions, it is preferred that you take test pilots for the job because the job of a test pilot is to evolve a system along with designers. So when I sit inside, I look at what the designer has done, and then I put myself in the situation, in the actual scenario, how am I going to operate it when I am there? Let's say I am wearing a glove, it is pressurised. How do I hold a handle? How do I change it? So these are the inputs that we are able to give to evolve the design into something that becomes safe and reliable. So, therefore, the initial few missions globally, it has always been that test pilots are a part of the astronaut corps, and when it is proven, it opens up for everyone. Researchers, engineers, doctors, anybody can go to space, but it has to reach that stage, the program has to mature to that stage. So, we are in that phase right now. So, yes, to answer to that, no, everybody goes, my commander on my mission biochemist. So, she was not a pilot. Actually, none of them were. I was the only pilot in that group of four which went to space with me.
00:08:33 · Aditya Agarwal
[00:08:33] S1: I continue to be fascinated by what are the common traits of the people who end up kind of, like, you know, finally being the people who we send into space. We've kind of identified having the desire to take risk and kind of like, you know, just take it one step at a time, but try to push yourself at each step. What other common characteristics did you see in your fellow astronauts from across the world? Obviously, you know, there's a large amount of innate skill, but I'm curious what other kind of common traits did you see?