Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force created history on Thursday afternoon (June 26, 2025) by becoming the first Indian to enter the International Space Station.

As the Dragon crew capsule carrying Group Captain Shukla and three other astronauts as part of Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) circled earth, he greeted people back home with a “Namaskar from space”. The spacecraft then docked with the ISS at 4.01 p.m. IST as it passed over the north Atlantic Ocean.

For Group Captain Shukla, this is the first step to a more ambitious mission as he is one of the four astronauts designated to take part in Gaganyaan, India’s first human spaceflight mission. The Indian Space Research Organisation, which expects to conduct the first crewed flight under this mission no earlier than 2026, paid more than ₹500 crore for the Ax-4 mission to include Group Captain Shukla and Prasanth Nair, another Gaganyaan designate who was part of the back-up crew for the Ax-4 mission.

On Thursday’s (June 26, 2025) flight, Group Captain Shukla was the mission pilot. A live videolink from NASA showed the spacecraft approaching the station, with the docking sequence being completed at 4.15 p.m. At the lift-off on Wednesday evening (June 25, 2025) from Florida, Axiom Space — which is orchestrating the mission — had said the capsule would attempt docking in about 28 hours.

“Shubhanshu stands at the threshold entrance of International Space Station… as the world watches with excitement and expectation,” Union Minister of State for Space Jitendra Singh wrote in a post on X.

The four astronauts aboard will spend the next two weeks at the ISS conducting scientific experiments, including eight from ISRO, and helping with the station’s upkeep.