India In Orbit: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla Becomes First Indian On ISS With 30 Scientific Missions In Historic Spaceflight
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla said it best when he remarked that the tiny Indian flag he is carrying to space represents each of the 140 crore Indians. His words capture the pride and significance of his mission—India’s most ambitious human spaceflight effort since Rakesh Sharma’s historic journey 41 years ago.
While Sharma became the first Indian to travel to space aboard a Soviet spacecraft, Shukla becomes the first Indian to be stationed on the International Space Station (ISS) for a full 14 days.
More importantly, he is not just a passenger. He has been assigned 30 scientific experiments in microgravity, reflecting the growing global confidence in India’s scientific and technological capabilities.
These experiments cover a wide range of disciplines, including biology, material sciences, fluid mechanics, and space medicine, all of which may contribute to long-term human survival in space.
The crew includes mission commander Peggy Whitson of NASA, along with Polish and Hungarian astronauts. That India is part of this multinational team underscores the country’s rising stature in global space exploration.
The mission was made possible by an agreement between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, a testament to the growing collaboration between public space agencies and private aerospace firms like SpaceX.
The flight aboard Falcon 9 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre marks a new phase for India. Once, space exploration was viewed through the lens of the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The different nomenclature—“astronauts” in the West and “cosmonauts” in the East—reflected the ideological divide.
When Rakesh Sharma flew on a Soviet spacecraft, it was partly a gesture of friendship and partly a strategic move in geopolitics. In contrast, Shukla’s journey is free from such political baggage. It is a mission driven by science and the universal quest for knowledge. Experiments in space hold immense potential in medicine and climate research, all of which could benefit humanity at large.
This mission is also a vital stepping stone toward India’s own manned lunar programme. India has already made history by successfully landing a spacecraft near the Moon’s south pole, a feat accomplished by only a few nations.
The Chandrayaan-3 mission firmly established ISRO as a major space player, especially given the complexity of lunar landings and India’s success at a relatively low cost. With that success behind it, India is poised to join the US, Russia, and China not just as a spacefaring nation but as a builder of future space stations and lunar habitats.
But to take that final leap—putting an Indian on the Moon—the current mission must succeed. All Indians, at home and abroad, salute Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and wish him success in his historic journey.
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