Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS), marked his last day in a parikrama laboratory with a symbolic photo op before returning to Earth. Painted with astronauts representing the United States, Japan, India, Hungary and Poland, the image was captured using a time-omission camera on the wall climbing the wall.Astronaut Johnny Kim said, “We are not often found in our flight suits, but Chance had all of us out, so we took advantage of and took some pictures with our new Crumets.” “It is a pleasure to learn and work with these professionals, and it is amazing to see the ground cooperation for research between our fellow nations.”Shukla is now preparing to ignore the ISS with the AXIOM-4 (AX-4) crew after the 18-day stay in space. The Dragon Spacecraft is scheduled to release ISS at around 4.35pm IST on Monday, expecting printing from the California coast at 3.01pm IST on Tuesday. The return journey is completely automatic and will run for about 22.5 hours.At a farewell ceremony on Sunday, emotions raced high as the X -4 crew said his goodbye. Shukla, left for experience, thanked the campaign 73 crew for making his journey special. He said, “When I started on Falcon -9 on 25 June, I did not imagine all this. It was an incredible happiness that being here and working with professionals like you,” he said.Recalling the mission of Rakesh Sharma’s prestigious 1984, Shukla reflected India’s presence in space: “Today’s India is important. Today’s Bharat Garva Cess is dekha. Today’s India still looks ‘Saare Jahan Se Accha’. ,Shukla’s participation is only the second time when an Indian has traveled to space, and first is riding on ISS. His journey funded by ISRO for about Rs 550 crore is seen as an important basis for India’s own human spaceflight mission, Gaganan planned for 2027.
