Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has made history as the first Indian to visit the $150 billion International Space Station (ISS), completing a landmark journey aboard Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). The privately brokered mission, arranged by Axiom Space in partnership with NASA and ISRO, cost India nearly $70 million and marked a major milestone in India’s growing role in international human spaceflight.
Shukla splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego at approximately 3:01 pm IST aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, concluding the historic Ax-4 mission.
Ax-4 – also referred to as Mission Akash Ganga – included a diverse international crew: American astronaut and mission commander Peggy Whitson, pilot Shukla of India, and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. The mission was not only a scientific success but also a symbolic one, as it marked the first time in over four decades that India, Poland, and Hungary sent national astronauts into space – and their first time living and working aboard the ISS.
Shukla has now become the first Indian to orbit aboard the ISS and only the second Indian to travel into space after Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 mission.
After spending around 433 hours (18 days) in orbit, completing 288 revolutions around the Earth and covering approximately 12.2 million kilometres – about 32 times the distance between Earth and the Moon – the crew undocked from the ISS at 4:15 a.m. IST on July 14. NASA noted that the return journey began while Shukla was still onboard the ISS, orbiting roughly 400 km above Earth and passing near the east coast of India. The actual undocking occurred over the Bay of Bengal.
Upon return, Shukla will undergo a seven-day rehabilitation program to help readjust to Earth’s gravity after nearly three weeks in microgravity.
