Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla conferred with Ashoka Chakra

New Delhi: India's highest peacetime gallantry award, Ashoka Chakra was conferred upon Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla by President Droupadi Murmu at the 77th Republic Day celebration. Shukla made history by becoming the first Indian to set foot on the International Space Station (ISS).

In June last year, Shukla became the first Indian to visit the ISS as part of the historic Axiom-4 mission.

However, he is the second to venture into space as his 18-day space odyssey came 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma flew aboard the Russian Soyuz-11 space mission.

As a fighter pilot, Shukla has an impressive record of 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32.

Shukla served as pilot for the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station.After the successful space mission, Group Captain Shukla became a household name as his contribution during the mission, including the conduct of sophisticated experiments, received recognition from global space experts.

The Axiom-4 mission was executed by US-based private firm Axiom Space, and it involved NASA, European Space Agency (Esa) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Group Captain Shukla hails from Lucknow. He was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force in June 2006.

(with PTI inputs)