India marked a historic return to human spaceflight after more than four decades as Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, a decorated Indian Air Force officer and astronaut with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), soared into space aboard the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) on Wednesday.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:31 a.m. Eastern Time (12:00 noon IST), carrying Shukla and three other international astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). It is the fourth private astronaut mission organized by Axiom Space, with docking scheduled for Thursday at around 7:00 a.m. ET (4:00 p.m. IST).
Speaking from aboard the spacecraft as it orbited Earth at 7.5 kilometers per second, Shukla addressed the Indian people in an emotional message. “Namaskar, my dear countrymen, what a ride. We are back in space once again after 41 years… This journey of mine is not just a beginning to the ISS but to India’s Human Space Programme,” he said. “The Tiranga embossed on my shoulders tells me that I am with all of you. Your chest, too, should swell with pride.”
Shukla now follows in the footsteps of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who became India’s first astronaut in 1984 aboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 mission. If successful, Shukla will become the second Indian to visit space and the first to do so as part of a commercial mission.
Joining Shukla on the 14-day mission are Commander Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and Axiom Space’s director of human spaceflight, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. Together, the team will carry out more than 60 scientific experiments and commercial projects, making it the most research-intensive mission undertaken by Axiom to date.
The crew is equipped with Axiom’s next-generation AxEMU spacesuits—designed for flexibility, protection, and future lunar missions. Research projects will span 31 countries, including India, the United States, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the UAE, and others.
NASA and ISRO are collaborating on several of the mission’s key investigations, including studies on muscle regeneration, the growth of edible plants in microgravity, and the survival of aquatic organisms in space.
Axiom Mission 4 builds on previous private missions to the ISS, with the company rapidly expanding its footprint in commercial space exploration. Shukla’s role as pilot underscores India’s rising prominence in global spaceflight efforts and marks a powerful moment in the nation’s path toward establishing a sustained human presence in space.
