India is celebrating a major milestone in space exploration as Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla becomes only the second Indian to travel to space, and the first to visit the International Space Station (ISS).
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla
His journey comes 41 years after Rakesh Sharma's historic 1984 mission aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
Shukla is part of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission, a private spaceflight operated by Houston-based Axiom Space. The spacecraft launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 02:31 EDT (12:01 IST) on Wednesday. In just over a day, the crew is expected to dock with the ISS, where Shukla will make history once again by stepping aboard NASA’s orbital lab.
The Ax-4 mission is commanded by renowned former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and features a multinational crew, including astronauts from Poland and Hungary, who are also marking returns to space for their respective nations after more than 40 years.
The mission is a collaborative effort between NASA, India’s ISRO, the European Space Agency, and SpaceX. ISRO emphasized that the mission will provide valuable hands-on experience to aid India's future space endeavors.
