New Delhi, July 28 -- Earlier this month, Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla returned to earth after spending 18 days in space. He is only the second Indian to have been to space, and piloted the Space X Dragon with its Axiom-4 crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and back.

While this mission was commercially arranged, the activities and experiments that Shukla conducted will aid India in its Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme in the coming years.

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Gaganyaan 1 and 2 are expected to place unmanned crafts in low-earth orbit that will be launched in late 2025 and 2026, respectively. Gaganyaan 3 is expected to launch a crewed craft later in 2026 or early...