Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, India’s second spacefarer, returned home to a grand welcome in Delhi after his historic ISS mission under Axiom-4. Welcomed by leaders, family, and crowds, Shukla will meet PM Modi and join National Space Day celebrations later this month
Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla was warmly welcomed at Delhi’s airport after completing his two-week Axiom-4 mission aboard the ISS. Citizens, officials, and youth hailed his achievement as a historic moment for India’s human spaceflight programme.
Missions like Axiom-4 can ignite scientific curiosity in youth — but India must invest more in science education and research to nurture indigenous talent
After 18 days aboard the ISS, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and the Axiom-4 team are returning to Earth on July 15. The mission included key space experiments, international camaraderie, and marks a major milestone for India’s space journey.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is studying muscle loss in microgravity aboard the ISS under the Axiom-4 mission. His experiments could lead to therapies for age-related muscle atrophy and innovations like brain-computer interfaces for use in space and on Earth.
Shubhanshu Shukla has become the first Indian astronaut to reach the International Space Station, 41 years after Rakesh Sharma’s legendary 1984 spaceflight. Launching with Axiom-4 aboard SpaceX’s Dragon, Shukla called it “a great ride” and dedicated the journey to India’s 1.4 billion people.
The Axiom-4 mission, which marks the return to space for India, Hungary, and Poland, was earlier scheduled for lift-off from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 19 onboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket
The Axiom Space mission was to blast-off from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 11, but had to be delayed first due to a fuel leak in SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket and then due to a leak in the Russian section of the ISS
