New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who is aboard the International Space Station, via video conferencing.
The Prime Minister’s Office posted the news on its official X handle, along with a picture of a smiling Modi interacting with astronaut Shubhanshu.
On June 25, after multiple delays, Shubhanshu and three other astronauts jetted off to the ISS on board SpaceX’s Dragon capsule from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, as part of the Axiom-4 mission.
It’s a historic mission for India as Shubhanshu became only the second from his country to travel to space, following Rakesh Sharma’s mission in 1984.
Shubhanshu’s fellow astronauts on the Axiom-4 mission are Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, the second Polish astronaut since 1978, Tibor Kapu, the second Hungarian in space after a 45-year hiatus, and commander Peggy Whitson of the United States, a former NASA astronaut who now works for Axiom Space.