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.........

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