On 25 June 2025, Indian space history was made as Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the second Indian to journey beyond Earth's atmosphere and the first Indian person to step onto the International Space Station (ISS). This historic achievement, achieved more than 41 years after the iconic flight of Rakesh Sharma in 1984, has recharged national pride, boosted India's reputation in international space exploration, and motivated a new generation to aspire beyond the confines of the skies.
A Journey Four Decades in the Making
India's human space journey started with Rakesh Sharma, whose 8-day stay on the Soviet Salyut-7 station in April 1984 left an indelible mark on the collective psyche. Sharma’s calm assurance “Saare Jahan Se Achha” in response to then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s query from Earth turned both the astronaut and the mission into instant Indian legends. Sharma’s flight emerged from the Soviet Inter cosmos program, a diplomatic and scientific partnership that underscored India’s technological ambitions and deepened Indo-Soviet relations at the height of the Cold War. But for over four decades after Sharma's return, India's dreams of human spaceflight continued to elude it. ISRO's own brilliant achievements in launching satellites, moon probes, and Mars orbiters could not bring it within its grasp until 2025.
Shubhanshu Shukla, a veteran Group Captain of the Indian Air Force (IAF), was carefully chosen to be India's next ambassador in space. His qualifications were immaculate: more than 2,000 hours of flight time on frontline IAF jets, intensive training assignments at Russia's iconic Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, and then special preparation at India's ISRO and the US space agency NASA. Shukla embodied not only India's armed forces' technical proficiency but also the teamwork and flexibility now necessary for twenty-first-century spaceflight. The journey to the ISS was via Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). Hosted by commercial firm Axiom Space in partnership with NASA and SpaceX, Ax-4 was a milestone in international and commercial space cooperation. Four international astronauts from various countries, India, the USA, Poland, and Hungary, stood ready for a milestone 18-day mission in low Earth orbit. For India, it was a return to human spaceflight that they had waited for for years, as well as an introduction to the world's top orbital laboratory.
At 12:01 p.m. IST (2:31 a.m. EDT) on June 25, 2025, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared skyward from Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, carrying the Crew Dragon "Grace" and her multinational crew. The excitement in India was palpable, its people reminiscing over the pride of 1984 but also realizing this was a step into a different era, one not guided by superpower block alignments but by international coalitions and commercial space technology. As Shukla sat in command as mission pilot, with Commander Peggy Whitson (seasoned NASA Approximately 16 hours after liftoff, the Dragon "Grace" berthed at the ISS. Therein, Shukla was the first Indian to set foot on the International Space Station, something not possible in Sharma's times, and which speaks of both India's technological advances and the shifting paradigm of low-Earth orbit accessibility. Live coverage of Shukla drifting on board the ISS, holding mementos from India and sporting his IAF insignia, touched many hearts back home. In his orbital address, Shukla emphasized the larger significance of the mission: "This is not a personal achievement but a shared accomplishment…a triumph of India's resolve to take our place among those who reach for the stars." He acknowledged the gratitude of ISRO, the IAF, his training teams, and all Indians who had the courage to dream. astronaut) and mission specialists Sławosz Uznański- Wiśniewski (Poland) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary) all around him, the symbolism was powerful. Not since Sharma's departure from Baikonur Cosmodrome had an Indian flagged space traveler ascended to a foreign spaceship as an equal partner in a daring scientific mission.
Pushing the Frontiers of Science
Aside from its symbolic significance, Axion Mission 4 was also a scientific powerhouse. More than 60 experiments were performed on the ISS, many of which were designed and funded by Indian research groups in collaboration with ISRO. These comprised investigations on cultivating Indian crops like moong and methi in microgravity, experiments on microalgae and cyanobacteria for sustainable life support, tardigrade research to explore the biological boundaries of hardness in space, and medical and physiological studies on muscle loss, diabetes monitoring, and screen exposure effects. Every experiment yielded valuable information for India's native Gaganyaan program, its indigenous human spaceflight mission, which now has its first crewed launch targeted for 2027. ISRO officials were categorical: Shukla's hands-on experience with space adaptation, everyday living, and scientific operations on the ISS would assist in honing mission planning, crew training, and equipment for India's future crew members.
Diplomatic and Economic Ripples
Shukla's mission was as much a diplomatic triumph as a technical one. It exhibited the dividends of cooperation between NASA and ISRO in a long-standing bilateral relationship. The mission was promoted by both Indian and US leaders as representative of international cooperation and peaceful, science-orientated aspirations in space. Additionally, the US$66 million (₹550 crore) investment by India for this mission and related R&D solidified India's resolve to play on the global stage and provided a shot in the arm to the nation's nascent space technology industry.
The human side of Ax-4 was never out of the limelight: Shukla's live video conferencing with Indian students, his open demonstrations of existing in zero gravity or traditional bathing, and his pride in standing in for his nation. For young Indians numbering in the millions who saw him do it, some for the first time since Sharma's legendary flight, it was a tangible reminder that space is not an imaginary or remote place but a concrete, common boundary. After coming back, the rehabilitation and acclimation process served as a window on the physiology of the demands and marvels of space travel. Footage of Shukla relearning to walk echoed that of global astronauts but took on a distinctively Indian connotation, symbolizing not only one man's readaptation but a whole country's re-appreciation of human spaceflight after an extended layoff.
Despite all its newness, Shubhanshu Shukla's achievement is rooted solidly in the achievements of trailblazers such as Rakesh Sharma. While Sharma's journey was a product of a geopolitically charged era of bilateral end eavours, Shukla's was a reflection of multi-polar, commercially driven international collaboration, one based on respect for each other, science, and a vision for the future of humankind beyond Earth. India is no longer a passive onlooker from the periphery of space history but a nation whose astronauts, scientists, and engineers walk shoulder to shoulder with the world's finest. The successful return to human spaceflight opens the way for "Gaganyaan", plans for an Indian space station by 2035, and even Indian footsteps on the Moon in the next decade. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla's odyssey is not merely the tale of the second Indian in space. It is the revival of a national dream, the fruit of persistence, and the most confident testimony yet to India becoming a true space power, technology-savvy, cooperative, canny, and aspiration-driven. Years from now, when Indian-born astronauts blast off from Indian soil into unknown worlds, they will recall Sharma and Shukla as trailblazers, pioneers who took risks, were disciplined in their dedication, and showed the world that,
"India belongs among the stars".