Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the second Indian astronaut to venture into space, greeted the world with a heartfelt “Hello everyone, Namaskar from Space,” during a live stream from the SpaceX spacecraft en route to the International Space Station (ISS). His message came just hours before the scheduled docking of the Axiom Mission 4 crew, expected around 4:30 PM IST on Thursday.
Shukla, a 39-year-old Indian Air Force officer from Lucknow, is part of the Axiom-4 Mission, a privately organized spaceflight in collaboration with Elon Musk's SpaceX. The mission lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:01 PM IST aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule carrying Shukla, veteran NASA astronaut and mission commander Peggy Whitson, Tibor Kapu of Hungary, and Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland.
Reflecting on his experience so far, Shukla shared that he was “thrilled to be in space,” and described the launch as “amazing.” “Since yesterday, I've been told that I'm sleeping a lot, which is a good sign. I'm getting used to this quite well, enjoying the views, enjoying the entire experience. Learning like a baby—how to walk and eat in space. It's good to make mistakes, but it's better to see someone else do that too,” he said, smiling during the transmission. Calling his mission a milestone for India, Shukla said, “This is a small step, but a steady and solid step towards India's human space programme.”
Shukla’s space journey marks a historic moment for India, coming 41 years after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma made history in 1984 by spending eight days aboard the Soviet Salyut-7 space station. Shukla’s participation in the Axiom-4 mission is seen as a symbolic and strategic leap forward in India's ambitions for manned space exploration, including its own upcoming Gaganyaan mission. The Axiom-4 crew will spend over a week aboard the ISS, conducting scientific research, technology demonstrations, and international outreach before returning to Earth.