Dipanjan Mondal
June 28, 2025:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday spoke with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force, who made history earlier this week by becoming the first Indian to set foot on the International Space Station (ISS).
Shukla, along with three other astronauts, jetted off to the ISS on board SpaceX's Dragon capsule from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre, as part of the Axiom-4 mission, on June 25.
“Today, you are away from our motherland, but you are the closest to the hearts of Indians... Aapke naam mein bhi shubh hai aur aapki yatra naye yug ka shubharambh bhi hai,” PM Modi told the astronaut.|
Responding to the Prime Minister, Shukla said the mission was “not my journey alone but also our country's,” and added that he was “absorbing these new experiences like a sponge.”
Asked by the Prime Minister to describe what he has seen so far, Mr Shukla said, "A short while ago, when I was looking out of the window, we were flying over Hawaii. We see sunrise and sunset 16 times a day from the orbit...Our nation is moving forward at a very great pace..."
"We trained for a year and I learnt about different systems...but after coming here, everything changed...Here, even small things are different because there is no gravity in space...Sleeping here is a big challenge...It takes some time to get used to this environment," he told the Prime Minister.
Pressed by the Prime Minister to speak about his first thought after reaching space, the Indian astronaut spotlighted that "no border is visible", and that India looks "very grand, very big".
"The first view was of the Earth and after seeing the Earth from outside, the first thought and the first thing that came to mind was that the Earth looks completely one, no border is visible from outside. When we saw India for the first time, we saw that India really looks very grand, looks very big, much bigger than what we see on the map... When we see the Earth from outside, it seems that no border exists, no state exists, and no countries exist. We all are part of humanity, and the Earth is our one home, and all of us are in it," said Mr Shukla.
The Axiom-4 mission's Dragon spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on Thursday. This marked the start of the crew's two-week stay in orbit. While aboard the ISS, the crew will carry out various activities.
They will conduct scientific research, perform technology demonstrations, and engage in educational outreach, all in the unique microgravity environment. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will oversee seven of the 60 experiments planned for this mission. The Axiom-4 mission is a significant step in Indo-US space cooperation.
