Online Desk
IAF pilot-turned-astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, sent his first message from orbit hours after launching on the Axiom-4 mission to the ISS.
Strapped into the Dragon capsule, Shukla greeted the nation with a heartfelt, “Namaskar, mere deshvasiyon.” “What a ride!” he exclaimed.
“I am learning like a baby, how to walk and eat in space,” he said, speaking of the challenges of adapting to microgravity.
Shukla is only the second Indian citizen to travel to space, and the first to reach the ISS, following a 41-year gap since Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s historic flight in 1984.
Alongside Shukla, the Axiom-4 crew includes mission commander Peggy Whitson (USA), former NASA astronaut, and mission specialists Sławosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary).
The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission is aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, launched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket which was launched from Launch Complex 39A of Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday
Family members of Shukla watching the live broadcast of Axiom 4 mission, in Lucknow.