'Carries aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians': PM Modi lauds astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's space expedition

Modi has welcomed the successful launch of the Axiom-4 Mission by India, Poland, Hungary and the United States.

In an X post, the Prime Minister wrote, "We welcome the successful launch of the Space Mission carrying astronauts from India, Hungary, Poland and the US.

"The Indian Astronaut, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is on the way to become the first Indian to go to International Space Station. He carries with him the wishes, hopes and aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians. Wish him and other astronauts all the success!"

The Axiom-4 Mission was launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday after multiple delays.

Shukla piloted a SpaceX Dragon aircraft which was launched for the space expedition.

He is accompanied by mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), Tibor Kapu (Hungary) and Commander Peggy Whitson (United States).

Earlier, Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma spent eight days in orbit as a part of the Soviet mission to Space in 1984.

Shukla, who hails from the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is a fighter pilot for 15 years.

"I grew up reading about Rakesh Sharma in textbooks and listening to his stories from space. I was deeply impressed by him," said Shukla and added, "This journey has been a long one for me. It started out somewhere I didn't know that this is the path I am going to finally take."

"The way this worked out for me was that probably a week before we arrived at Axiom was the time I came to know that I would be going. I was extremely excited to be here. I was very, very happy, because this was a possibility for me to actually fly to space. You do not know how to respond to such things," the 40-year-old astronaut added. 

The launch was called off several times in the past due to weather and technical glitches.

The crew will travel to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after launching on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. The targeted docking time is approximately 7 a.m. Thursday, June 26.