A giant leap

Axiom-4 more than just sending a human to space; it's about building a foundation for the future of humanity

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HERE ARE SEVERAL reasons to celebrate the successful launch of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission. First, it marks the beginning of India's human spaceflight. Though the mission was undertaken on a commercial flight operated by Houston-based private company Axiom Space, it is a collaboration between NASA, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), European Space Agency (ESA), and SpaceX. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who's piloting the mission, has become only the second Indian to travel to space. And when the spacecraft docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, he became the first ever Indian to visit NASA's orbiting laboratory. Shukla's trip comes 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to fly to space aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984. But Sharma's achievement was largely symbolic and of inspirational value as India did not at the time have the infrastructure and the capability to make productive use of his learnings. In comparison, Shukla's trip will have huge practical implications.