In a milestone moment for India's space journey, Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, also known by his call sign ‘Shux’, became the first Indian to reach the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday evening, June 26 (IST).
He arrived aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. With this, Shukla also becomes the second Indian to travel to space, following in the footsteps of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew on a Soviet mission in 1984.
The Axiom-4 mission, which includes astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary, is a historic collaboration between Axiom Space, NASA and SpaceX, marking a renewed chapter in human spaceflight for several nations.
Group Captain Shukla docked at the ISS at 4:01 pm IST, where he and three fellow astronauts were welcomed by the station’s existing seven-member crew. The arrival was met with hugs, laughter and a healthy ‘welcome drink', a small tradition to ease new arrivals into orbit life.
Shukla addressed the entire crew shortly after docking, “I am feeling lightheaded. But that is not much of an issue compared to the things we will do here for the next 14 days. It is a very proud and exciting moment, a big step in our space journey,” he said, as quoted by NDTV.
After a mandatory safety briefing, the full crew of 11 astronauts gathered for a joint dinner, another ISS ritual that marks the beginning of camaraderie among new and existing members. It’s likely that Shukla also visited the ISS cupola, the observatory module, as suggested by Rakesh Sharma, for his first breathtaking view of Earth from 400 km above.
Shukla’s First Full Day
Shukla, like many first-time astronauts, experienced some space sickness, including a heavy head, and spent his first night adjusting to weightlessness with a scheduled eight-hour sleep.
His day officially began with a two-hour window for ablutions and personal hygiene. Following that, a tightly packed 12.5-hour schedule awaited, filled with scientific experiments and exercise sessions in the space station’s gym to maintain fitness in microgravity.
Amidst his tasks, he would also have seen up to 16 sunrises and sunsets, a surreal experience unique to life aboard the ISS.
