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'Bharat aaj bhi saare jahan se acha dikhta hai': Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla recounts space journey; talks about Axiom-4 mission

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The Times Of Indiapublisher-detail-arrow
21st August, 2025 13:52 IST
NEW DELHI: Shubhanshu Shukla on Thusday shared his experience of the historic Axiom-4 mission , calling it a mission for the entire nation. Addressing a press conference in New Delhi alongside Union minister Jitendra Singh and Isro officials, Shukla said he was grateful to the government, Isro, scientists and citizens who made the mission possible.

"...I would like to start by thanking the people who have made this mission (Axiom-4) possible. There are multiple layers to this, not just one person. I will start by thanking the Government of India for conceiving this mission and finally making it happen. I would like to thank Isro for enabling this entire mission, the people, my colleagues at Isro who have worked so hard to successfully execute it. I would also like to thank the PIs and researchers who have enabled the experiments for the Axiom 4 mission; their contribution has been invaluable," Shukla said.

" I would also like to thank everyone who helped bring this mission to the population of our country, making it accessible for everyone to view. In the end, I would like to thank each and every citizen of this country who behaved in a way that made it feel like they actually owned this mission. I truly felt that this was a mission for the entire nation," he added.



Sharing details of the mission, he added, "The Axiom 4 mission was a mission to the International Space Station . We flew on top of the Falcon 9 vehicle in the Crew Dragon to the International Space Station for a period of two weeks and then returned. The launch was from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and recovery was off the coast of San Diego in the Pacific Ocean. Crew Dragon is one of the three vehicles that can currently take humans to space. We were also fortunate to have training on the Soyuz, which launches from Russia, as well as on Crew Dragon. The International Space Station, as you know, is an orbiting laboratory that has been operational since 2000. It has been conducting cutting-edge science and is actually a perfect example of international collaboration."

Shukla further said, "It was entire nation's mission. The experience is very different from what you learn on ground."

He also expressed his emotions while seeing Earth from space, remarking, "Bharat aaj bhi antariksha se saare jahan se acha dikhta hai."

Isro Chairman V Narayanan hailed the mission as a prestigious achievement. "...In the last 10 years, the progress has been phenomenal and exponential. The missions completed from 2015 to 2025 are almost double those from 2005 to 2015. During the last 6 months, three important missions have been accomplished. The Axiom-4 mission is a prestigious mission. The first Indian was taken to the International Space Station and was brought back safely, Shubhanshu Shukla..." he said.



Highlighting recent advancements, Narayanan noted, "...GSLV-F16 rocket placing the most prestigious Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar on July 30 perfectly. A satellite jointly released by JPL NASA and Isro ... Today, the satellite is totally perfect... In another 2-3 months, we will launch a 6500 kg communication satellite of USA, which is going to be launched using our launch vehicle..."



He added that India’s space sector had seen remarkable growth in the past decade. "...After PM Modi took over as the prime minister, the south asian satellite was built, launched and donated to the south asian countries. Under his leadership, we have also realised the G20 satellite for the G20 countries... 10 years ago, we had only one startup company in the space area. Today, we have more than 300 startups in the space industry... There are two suborbital missions done by private companies..."



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