2025: A space odyssey

Shukla's 'Jai Hind!' echoes from space as Indian enters orbital club after 41 yrs, gearing up for Gaganyaan leap

- SHINE JACOB

Forty-one years after Rakesh Sharma's iconic words — "Saare Jahan Se Achcha" — echoed from orbit, another Indian voice has been heard from space. "Jai Hind! Jai Bharat!" said Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, speaking from aboard Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) as it made its way to the International Space Station (ISS).

A little after noon (India time), the mission to the ISS in low-Earth orbit lifted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It marked a historic return: India's first government-sponsored human spaceflight since Sharma's 1984 mission aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, and a significant precursor to its own Gaganyaan programme.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is investing ₹550 crore in this mission, an early instalment in the country's grand ambitions for human space exploration.

"Namaskar, my dear countrymen! What a ride!" Shukla exclaimed. "We are back in space once again after 41 years. Kya kamaal ki ride thi (What an amazing ride it was). We are revolving around the Earth at a speed of 7.5 kilometres per second." He will reach the ISS on Thursday, after an approximately 28-hour journey.

If Sharma's words once captured a generation's imagination, Shukla's mission lands in a different context: One shaped by India's emerging commercial space sector and its growing integration into global supply chains and research networks. The Axiom mission, a joint venture between Nasa and Houston-based Axiom Space, is emblematic of that shift. It's a commercially managed flight, launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and operated through the Crew Dragon C213 capsule.