Guwahati, June 25 -- Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has made history by piloting the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for the highly anticipated Axiom 4 mission bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The launch occurred at 12:01 pm on Wednesday, June 25, following several delays.

Shukla is the first Indian astronaut to reach the ISS in four decades, the last being the legendary Rakesh Sharma, who spent eight days aboard the Soviet Union's Salyut-7 space station in 1984.

Accompanying Shukla on this mission are former NASA astronaut and mission commander Peggy Whitson, along with specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

The Axiom 4 mission also marks a significant space mileston...