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The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon capsule carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others lifts off from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday. (Screengrab: X/@SpaceX)
The Axiom-4 Mission, with India’s Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts on board, roared into space at noon on Wednesday, beginning a 28-hour journey to the International Space Station.
In the process, Shukla became the second Indian to travel to space, more than 40 years after Rakesh Sharma travelled on a Soviet mission in 1984. Two other astronauts on the mission, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, are also marking the return of their respective countries to space after more than four decades.
“This is not the beginning of my flight. This is the beginning of India’s human spaceflight efforts. I am with you all. You all can participate in this flight and feel the energy, and become a part of this mission,” Shukla said from the spacecraft, ten minutes after the launch after the spacecraft had got into an orbit around the Earth.
The mission, which had faced multiple delays because of weather and technical issues, took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It will reach the International Space Station (ISS) about 4.30 pm India time on Thursday. Shukla is the first Indian to travel to the ISS, which is a permanent research facility in space, orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 400 km.
The lift-off was cheered with loud cheers and clapping at the auditorium of the CSIR headquarters in New Delhi where Science Minister Jitendra Singh and many other scientists and dignitaries, including Australian High Commissioner to India Philip Green, had gathered to watch the launch on video.
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