What an Indian in space means for India in space

Shubhanshu Shukla’s space sojourn, as part of the Axiom-4 mission, holds significance for India for many reasons.

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To start with, Shukla’s voyage ends a wait of little over four decades for an Indian to mark their presence outside Earth, after Rakesh Sharma became the first in 1984. In the interim, the country celebrated Indian-origin astronauts flying into space —and mourned the death of Kalpana Chawla in the Columbia disaster. It built enviable space prowess and punched much above its weight when it came to missions in Earth’s neighbourhood. But it remained on the sidelines of ma