Axiom-4 mission: Dragon spacecraft carrying Shubhanshu Shukla and crew docks at International Space Station

Dragon spacecraft carrying Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts achieved soft capture with International Space Station on Thursday (June 26, 2025)

Soft capture of the Dragon spacecraft took place when the Space Station was passing over north Atlantic Ocean at 4:01 p.m. IST. A live videolink from NASA showed the spacecraft approaching the space station and the docking sequence was completed at 4:15 p.m. IST.

With the docking of the Dragon spacecraft, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla made history by becoming the first Indian to enter the International Space Station.

After multiple delays, Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4) to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched on Wednesday (June 25, 2025) from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Pilot of the Ax-4 mission and Group Captain Shukla, along with other four crew members Commander Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary, embarked on a 28-hour journey to the ISS on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after launching on the Falcon 9 rocket

Earlier in the day, Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla said he was learning to live in microgravity conditions “like a baby” and it was an amazing experience to float in vacuum as the Dragon spacecraft circled the Earth in its journey to dock at the International Space Station.

Before reaching international space station, astronaut Shukla greeted the people with ‘Namaskar from space’ from Dragon spacecraft.

Sharing his experience via a videolink from the spacecraft, Shukla said after remaining in quarantine for 30 days, where he was far away from all the excitement, ahead of the launch of the Axiom-4 mission on Wednesday (June 25, 2025), “the only thought in my mind was to let us just go”.