BENGALURU: India always continued to inspire awe among global powers with its achievements in the space sector – ISRO’s Mars Mission and Chandrayaan series being some of the biggest to catch the eye of the big players in the global arena. And 2025 was no different. The participation of Group Captain and Gaganyatri Shubanshu Shukla in the Axiom-4 mission, and him docking the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft named Grace into the International Space Station (ISS), were a loud announcement of India taking giant strides in its space programmen.
The Axiom-4 mission, and ISRO’s participation in it, also set the tone and focus of the public and private Indian space sector to the most sought after scheduled missions – Gaganyaan and the establishment of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS). The first manned mission is scheduled for 2027, and the launch of the first module of BAS is scheduled for 2028. ISRO aims to establish and start operations of the entire space station by 2035.
As a part of the creation of the BAS, ISRO also successfully conducted the SpaDeX mission, where two 220Kg satellites were docked and undocked in the Low Earth Orbit in January.
By detecting the liquid oxygen leak in the spacecraft scheduled for launch for the Axiom-4 and demanding its fix before launch, India asserted its involvement and showed its strength. “The safety of the astronauts in space is more important than the launch date,” an ISRO team had stated during the meeting with Axiom Space and SpaceX teams ahead of the mission launch. The four-member crew included Shukla, Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, and two mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
Shukla, is the first Indian to stay inside the ISS for 18 days and altogether in space for 20 days. He is the second Indian to go to space, after a gap of 41 years – Group Captain Rakesh Sharma went to space on April 3, 1984, onboard the Soviet Soyuz T-11 spacecraft for an eight-day mission.
Apart from playing the role of the mission pilot for Axiom-4 mission, Shukla also conducted seven indigenously designed microgravity experiments. The list of experiments included growing space microalgae to understand the growth and radiation response of edible algae, muscle regeneration with supplement treatment in space, space farming, impact of microgravity on seed physiology, resilience and ageing patterns of tardigrades, Cyanobacteria in microgravity and impact of human-screen in space.
It may be noted, that before handing over the space cropping experiment to Shukla, ISRO had conducted Compact Research Module for Orbital Plant Studies (CROPS) experiment in space, which found that cowpea could germinate in space. The CROPS was one of the 24 payloads on the POEM-4 platforms.
Shukla’s interaction with students from the ISS and his 18-minute interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the tone for many young space sector aspirants. The knowledge that Shukla has gathered along with his colleague and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, who was a part of the Axiom-4 mission, as backup crew member is being used in strengthening India’s missions ahead.
Following the mission, ISRO and other stakeholders have been making considerable progress in the space sector. On December 24, ISRO achieved its 100th orbital launch with the heaviest commercial communication satellite – BlueBird-6 – on the LVM3-M6 rocket (popularly known as Bahubali). Its partnership with NASA for the NISAR mission launched in July is another example. ISRO’s S-Band radar for obtaining high-resolution Earth data is another feat.
ISRO Chairman S Narayanan said experiments and practice help improve the missions, and they would continue till the final date of the launch.