Lucknow, September 15 (TNA) Universal Booksellers, Hazratganj, will host Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla in his hometown of Lucknow on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 11:00 am, giving city readers a chance to meet the astronaut and hear about his memoir, The Second Orbit: Belief of a Man… Dreams of 1.4 Billion Hearts.
An Indian Air Force officer and decorated test pilot, Shukla was born in Lucknow on October 10, 1985, and built a career marked by precision and discipline, logging over 2,000 flying hours across fighter and transport aircraft including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32. He rose to national prominence in 2025 as the second Indian to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma's 1984 flight, journeying to the International Space Station aboard Axiom Mission 4.
The Second Orbit, published by Penguin Random House India, was released earlier this year at a ceremony in New Delhi's Prime Minister's Museum and Library, attended by Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh and other senior officials. At that launch, Shukla explained the book's title, noting that the "First Orbit" belonged to Rakesh Sharma's 1984 mission, while his own flight represented India's "Second Orbit."
He has also described the memoir not as a celebration of individual achievement but as a reflection of collective effort, saying that sending a single astronaut to space takes the work of thousands of people.
Promotional material for the Lucknow event, shared by Universal Booksellers, invites "all book lovers" to the store to meet the author and hear his journey firsthand, framing the visit under the line "From Lucknow to the Stars."
The event follows an earlier hometown reception the astronaut received in the city shortly after his return from the ISS, when local authorities and residents organised a public welcome for him.
Copies of The Second Orbit will be available at the venue. Organisers have noted that the terms of the event apply and have encouraged interested readers to attend early.