Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday congratulated Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on his historic journey to space as part of the Axiom-4 mission.
In a post on X, Modi welcomed the successful launch of the space mission carrying astronauts from India, Hungary, Poland, and the US.
“The Indian Astronaut, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, is on the way to become the first Indian to go to the International Space Station. He carries with him the wishes, hopes, and aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians. Wish him and other astronauts all the success!” the PM said.
Shukla, along with three other crew members from the US, Poland, and Hungary, embarked on the Axiom-4 mission, which lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida today.
Shukla, who is the Group Captain in the Indian Air Force, is the first Indian astronaut to travel as a Pilot to the International Space Station (ISS) and only the second Indian after Rakesh Sharma in 1984 to travel to space.
The four-member crew, which has been in quarantine in Florida, is commanded by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and now Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight. The mission specialists are ESA project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.