Shukla's Historic Space Odyssey

It is really historical and epoch-making that Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla headed to international space station ISS on space odyssey marking India's return to human spacecraft after a gap of 41 years following a successful launch of the Axiom Space mission in the US with a four-member multi-country crew.

- BAIRAJ CHAWALGAMI

The 39-year young, Lucknow born Shukla became only the second Indian astronaut to undertake a space flight ,41 years after his icon Rakesh Sharma's eight-day space odyssey on board the then Soviet Union's Salyut-7 space station in 1984. Indian astronaut Shukla scripted history by embarking on a space odyssey along with three others to the ISS as part of a commercial mission by Axiom space on Wednesday. The much delayed Axiom -4 mission blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 12.01 pm IST towards the ISS amid cheers from watch parties organized across the world, including Shukla's city Montessori School in Lucknow where his parents witnessed the historic launch. The Lucknow born Shukla, former astronaut Mission Commander Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski -Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary are part of the Axiom-4 mission that marks return to space for the three nations. Shukla became the first astronaut to travel to ISS ,a journey that comes 41 years after Rakesh Sharma's eight days in orbit as part of the then Soviet Union's Salyut-7 space station in 1984. Shukla was selected as the AX-4mission pilot because of his skill and trained for more than a year for the muchawaited mission. "This will be my first sortie to space as I switched over from happy landing to happy splash down," Shukla said in a pre-launch press conferenee. Hours after leaving earth, Shukla posted am Instagram message adding a special word of thanks for his wife, The second Indian astronaut is also keeping a secret. He will be bringing a special gift for the first Indian astronaut ,Wing Commander Sharma ,who has been guiding the Indian human space flight programme and mentoring Shukla and three other astronauts. "I will personally give it to him -Sharma after returning .Till then I am not disclosing what the gift is ,"Shukla said. The launch of Shubhanshu Shukla aboard the Axiom-4 [AX-4] mission in June 2025 marked more than a symbolic milestone for India's space program -