Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has scripted history as he is piloting the SpaceX Dragon aircraft launched for the much-anticipated Axiom 4 mission to go to the International Space Station.
The liftoff took place at 12.01 pm on Wednesday, June 25, after multiple delays.
Shukla is the first Indian astronaut to travel to the International Space Station in the last forty years, only after revered Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma. Sharma spent eight days in orbit as part of the then Soviet Union's Salyut-7 space station in 1984.
Track live updates of Axiom 4 mission launch here.
Shukla, who is an astronaut with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is accompanied by former NASA astronaut and Commander for this mission Peggy Whitson, and mission specialists Poland's Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, and Hungary's Tibor Kapu.
The Axiom 4 mission marks the return to space for not just India, but Poland and Hungary as well.
What Shubhanshu Shukla said before liftoff
{{/usCountry}}The Axiom 4 mission marks the return to space for not just India, but Poland and Hungary as well.
What Shubhanshu Shukla said before liftoff
{{/usCountry}}Before leaving for a historic journey to the ISS, Shubhanshu Shukla, who hails from Uttar Pradesh' Lucknow, said that he hopes the mission will inspire an entire generation of young people, much like the first Indian to go into space, Rakesh Sharma, did back in the day.
"It has been an amazing journey. These are moments that really tell you that you are getting to be a part of something that is much larger than yourself. I can only say how extremely fortunate I am to be a part of this. It is my sincere endeavour through my mission to inspire an entire generation back home in the country. I want to use this opportunity to ignite curiosity among kids. Even if this story, my story, is able to change one life, it would be a huge success for me," said Shukla in a YouTube video posted by the Ax-4 mission.
"The way this worked out for me was that probably a week before we arrived at Axiom was the time I came to know that I would be going. I was extremely excited to be here. I was very, very happy, because this was a possibility for me to actually fly to space. You do not know how to respond to such things," he added.
Shukla was born on October 10, 1985, Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow and is one of the four astronauts picked for ISRO's Gaganyaan mission.
Shukla was commissioned into the IAF fighter wing in June 2006. As a combat leader and seasoned test pilot, he boasts an impressive 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32.