Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on Thursday called the historic Axiom-4 space mission a mission for the entire nation. Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi with Union Minister Jitendra Singh and ISRO officials, Shukla said he was deeply grateful to the government, ISRO, scientists, and citizens who made the journey possible.

He said, “This mission was not the effort of one person alone. I want to thank the Government of India for planning and making it happen, ISRO for enabling it, my colleagues who worked so hard, and the researchers whose experiments were part of the mission. Their contribution has been invaluable.”

Shukla said he hopes the day is not far when an Indian will travel to space “in our own capsule, on our own rocket, from our own soil.” He added that the experience at the International Space Station (ISS) would be very useful for India’s upcoming Gaganyaan mission, noting that the past year had been full of learning for him.

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Sharing his emotions on seeing India from space, he remarked, “Bharat aaj bhi antariksha se saare jahan se acha dikhta hai” (Even today, from space, India looks more beautiful than the entire world).

ISRO set to launch Gaganyaan test mission 

ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan praised the achievement, calling the mission a milestone. He said India’s space programme had seen exponential growth in the last decade, with more missions completed between 2015 and 2025 than in the previous ten years. “In the last six months alone, three important missions have been carried out. 

The Axiom-4 mission is prestigious because, for the first time, an Indian went to the ISS and returned safely,” Narayanan said. ISRO is set to launch its first Gaganyaan test mission this December, he confirmed.

Shudhanshu Shukla met Rajnath Singh

Shukla met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday in Delhi after a successful mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Earlier on Monday, Shukla also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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‘The experience was beyond words,’ says Shukla 

Describing his first moments inside the rocket, Shukla said, “No matter how much training you do, the real feeling is very different. When the engines ignited, it was as if I was running behind the rocket for the first few seconds before catching up. From that moment till the splashdown, the experience was beyond words – so thrilling and overwhelming that I still struggle to explain it fully.”

Shukla said the Axiom-4 mission took him to the ISS for two weeks. He and his team flew aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in the Crew Dragon capsule, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and returned with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego. He also received training on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft. Shukla described the ISS as a floating laboratory in space and a shining example of international cooperation.

Shukla was the pilot of the Axiom-4 Space Mission to the ISS. He returned to Earth on July 15 after completing the NASA mission and landed in the national capital in the early hours of Sunday.