Indian Astronaut Makes History on International Space Station

Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is set to create history by becoming the first Indian ever to set foot on the International Space Station (ISS). On Wednesday, Group Captain Shukla set off on the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission that he's piloting. Led by former Nasa veteran Peggy Whitson, Ax-4 includes Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. The crew were seen floating in the spacecraft on Thursday in a video shared by private firm Axiom Space. They will spend two weeks on the ISS. Group Captain Shukla is only the second Indian ever to travel to space. His trip comes 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to fly aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984.

Ax-4 - a commercial flight operated by Houston-based Axiom Space - lifted off from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 02:31 EDT (06:31 GMT; 12:01 India time) on Wednesday. The docking on Thursday is due at 07:00EDT (11:00 GMT; 1630 India time). The mission is a collaboration between Nasa, India's space agency Isro, European Space Agency (Esa) and SpaceX. The two European astronauts will also be taking their countries back to space after more than four decades. During their two-week mission, the crew would spend most of their time conducting 60 scientific experiments, including seven designed by Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). Isro, which has paid 5bn rupees ($59m; £43m) to secure a seat for Group Captain Shukla on Ax-4 and his training, says the hands-on experience he will gain during his trip to the ISS will help India in its human space flights. Isro has said it wants to launch the country's first-ever human space flight in 2027 and has announced ambitious plans to set up a space station by 2035 and send an astronaut to the Moon by 2040.

According to the source: BBC.