June 26, 2025 - Air Force Group captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the second Indian astronaut to go into space 41 years after Rakesh Sharma, today made his first call from space as the Crew Dragon capsule hurtled towards the International Space Station (ISS) calling it an “indescribable experience”.

“It was a great ride,” Shukla remarked from space, shortly after the spacecraft was confirmed to be in stable orbit. “Namaskar, my dear countrymen; we have reached space after 41 years,” he had said in Hindi.

Later, after a 28-hour flight, the capsule docked at the ISS at 4:03 pm (IST), at a point 424 km above the northern Atlantic Ocean. The hatch separating the ISS and the capsule will open at around 6:10 pm (IST) and it will be some time before Shukla and his three crew members will join seven others on ISS. All checks will be made to ensure a secure connection of the capsule to the station.

The SpaceX Faclon 9 spacecraft with the Crew Dragon capsule, nicknamed Grace, had blasted off on June 25, at 12:01 pm IST from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

This is the first time an Indian has reached the space station ISS.

Apart from the 39-year-old Indian fighter pilot who is the mission’s pilot, the journey to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Dragon has three other crew members - Peggy Whitson (commander and former NASA astronaut), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland (ESA) and Tibor Kapu from Hungary (HUNOR).

The three will join seven current occupants of the ISS - three cosmonauts from Russia, three astronauts from the US and one from Japan.

Once aboard ISS, the astronauts will spend 14 days conducting more than 60 scientific experiments focused on human physiology, space technology and Earth observation.