Dragon spaceship docks with ISS: ‘Grace is happy to be on Harmony’

Axiom-4 mission: IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has become the first Indian astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS)

Updated on: Jun 26, 2025, 17:46:10 IST

By Snehal Fernandes

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

MUMBAI: Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday as SpaceX’s Dragon capsule Grace carrying a four-member international crew completed docking with the space-facing port of the space station’s Harmony module.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying Axiom Mission 4 nears the International Space Station’s space-facing docking port on the Harmony module.

“Grace is happy to be on Harmony,” said commander Peggy Whitson, nearly 28 hours after the private Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission lifted off to space.

Grace was ahead of schedule. It was earlier scheduled to achieve soft docking at 4.30pm (IST), which was accomplished at 4.02pm (IST) before completing the overall docking procedure.

After docking, it took two hours before the Dragon hatch was opened. The crew were then welcomed by Expedition 73 on ISS.

The Ax-4 crew comprising Whitson, Shukla representing the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary lifted off at 12:01pm (IST) on Wednesday, on the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Also Read| ‘What a ride’: Indian in space after 41-year gap

On ISS, Shukla will undertake seven homegrown microgravity experiments proposed by various national R&D laboratories and academic institutions, ranging from studying the impact of microgravity radiation in the ISS on edible microalgae, sprouting salad seeds in space, analysing human interaction with electronic displays in microgravity to impact of microgravity on growth and yield parameters in food crop seeds. Additionally, he will also undertake five Isro-NASA collaborative experiments.

During the 14-day mission, the Ax-4 crew is set to conduct 60 science experiments representing 31 countries, including the US, India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations across Europe. Axiom Space said this is the largest quantity of research that will be undertaken on any Axiom mission.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Snehal Fernandes
Snehal Fernandes is senior associate editor, who joined HT in 2006. She heads the Mumbai edition’s city reporting team that writes on civic and urban governance, transport and infrastructure, health, and education. She is also the National Science Editor. With a career spanning more than two decades, her expertise lies in writing on science and technology, space, environment, sustainable development, climate change, and nuclear energy. Her work consistently breaks down, and without oversimplyfying, science and research developments into an easy read for a broad audience. In 2009, she was among the very first journalist to report on the opposition to the Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri (Konkan) following the Indo- US civil nuclear agreement and consistently followed it with multiple stories from ground zero; wrote about the introduction and subsequent halt to the cultivation of genetically modified (BT) brinjal, and has interviewed Nobel laureates and award winning scientists. In 2012, she was awarded ‘The Press Club Award for Excellence in Journalism’ (Political category) for reports on the mining scam in Goa. Prior to HT, she wrote on education and transport at the Indian Express. She graduated in sociology from St Xavier's College, and firmly believes in the phrase by Karl Marx that ‘Religion is the opium of the people’. When she is not keeping a tab on the going-ons in Mumbai and the scientific world, you'll find her reading world news, or watching crime/espionage series or political dramas. She can repeatedly watch Kill Bill with the same interest as Planet of the Apes and Spiderman. For someone who was not remotely interested in dogs or cats, she loves every bit of her time with her two-year-old Indie cat Bunny.Read More

Get the latest India News, breaking headlines and real-time updates from across the country. Stay informed about politics, government policies, crime, weather major national developments and Karnataka Bandh LIVE.