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
The four newcomers — representing the US, Japan and Russia — will spend the next few days learning the station’s ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams
The Dragon spacecraft took off aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 7:03 pm ET on Friday (4.33 am on Saturday IST)
