Space Hero Shubhanshu Shukla Awarded Ashoka Chakra on Republic Day
Space Hero Shubhanshu Shukla Awarded Ashoka Chakra on Republic Day
President Murmu honours Group Captain Shukla, first Indian to visit the ISS, with Ashoka Chakra during Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi.
President Droupadi Murmu on Monday conferred India's highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashoka Chakra, on Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla at the Republic Day celebrations on Kartavya Path in New Delhi. Shukla became the first Indian to set foot on the International Space Station during the historic Axiom-4 mission, an 18-day space odyssey that marked a milestone in India's human spaceflight journey.
Shukla's career as a fighter pilot includes about 2,000 hours of flight time across aircraft such as Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32.
The Axiom-4 mission was conducted by private US firm Axiom Space with NASA, ESA and ISRO. Shukla served as the mission's pilot and helped run sophisticated experiments during the 18 days aboard the ISS.
He hails from Lucknow and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in 2006. The honour comes 41 years after Rakesh Sharma first travelled to space in 1984, highlighting a new era of Indian human spaceflight. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath congratulated Shukla on the lofty award. This achievement underscores India's growing footprint in space exploration and its return to human spaceflight milestones with a new generation of pilots.
