New Delhi, Aug. 22 -- India does look "saare jahaan se achcha (better than the entire world) even today," astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla said on Thursday as he described his recent Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, even as the Isro chief revealed critical events in the run up to the mission, which included a potentially catastrophic fuel leak in the SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket. The leak was only detected and fixed because Isro refused vague assurances and demanded full transparency, Isro chief V Narayanan said. "Isro's probing forced the company to call off the launch just hours before liftoff. What was later found, was no ordinary leak-it was a dangerous crack in the fuel line that could have caused a "catastrophic" failure mid-flight," he said. Narayanan and Shukla were speaking alongside Union minister Jitendra Singh and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair at a press conference held at the National Media Centre. The upcoming Gaganyaan mission was also spoken about, with the Isro chief announcing that the mission could be launched by December this year. Shukla too said that India will "very soon" send a person to space from its own rocket and soil, as part of the Gaganyaan mission. The Isro chief announced that the first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission, G1, "is going to be lifted off this year-end, maybe close to December." "And in that, Vyommitra, a half-humanoid, is going to fly," he said. Union minister Singh said that India's space programme is now operating on global parameters. "Now, our benchmarks are global benchmarks, our strategies are global, and the parameters that we are seeking to live up to are global," he said. "All the information I have collected in the past year will be extremely useful to us for our own missions - Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksh Station. Very soon, we shall send someone from our capsule, from our rocket and our soil," said Shukla. Shukla described his last venture to space. "No matter how much training you have done, even after that, when you sit in the rocket and the engines ignite, when they catch fire, I think it is a very different feeling," he told the audience. The International Space Station was "a perfect example of international collaboration" and said the knowledge from human spaceflight would be valuable for Gaganyaan. "Witnessing and executing human spaceflight offers knowledge and information that goes much beyond and deeper-it's very valuable for our Gaganyaan mission," he said....