New Delhi, June 26 -- India's Shubhanshu Shukla scripted history by embarking on a space odyssey along with three others to the International Space Station as part of a commercial mission by Axiom Space on Wednesday, 41 years after astronaut Rakesh Sharma's spaceflight onboard a Russian spacecraft.

SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 12:01 pm IST carrying the astronauts of the Axiom-4 mission towards the ISS amid cheers from watch parties organised across the world, including at Shukla's City Montessori School in Lucknow, where his parents witnessed the historic launch.

The astronauts began orbiting the Earth 10 minutes after the launch, prompting Shukla to announce India's return to human sp...