SAN DIEGO: Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has safely returned to Earth, completing a landmark space mission that made him the first Indian to set foot on the International Space Station (ISS). The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) spacecraft, carrying Shukla and three international crewmates, splashed down off the coast of San Diego, California at 15:01 IST (09:31 GMT) on Monday.
Shukla, who piloted the mission led by NASA veteran Peggy Whitson, spent nearly three weeks aboard the ISS. The Ax-4 crew also included Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. The mission, a collaboration involving NASA, India’s space agency ISRO, the European Space Agency (ESA), and SpaceX, marked a major step in India’s human spaceflight journey.
The Ax-4 launched to the ISS on 26 June and undocked on Monday. The return was live-streamed globally, with the capsule making a smooth ocean splashdown. A recovery team quickly secured the vessel, after which the crew was flown to land via helicopter.
In a farewell message broadcast from the ISS, Shukla expressed deep pride in representing India in space. “It has been an incredible journey. Even though now it is coming to an end, for you and me there is a long way to go,” he said. Quoting India’s first astronaut Rakesh Sharma, Shukla added, “India looked better than the rest of the world.”
Group Captain Shukla is only the second Indian to have travelled to space, following cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 flight aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. His journey not only rekindles India’s aspirations for deeper space exploration but also reinforces international collaboration in space science.
