INDIA’s Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts entered the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday after a 28-hour journey aboard the Dragon spacecraft. The crew received warm hugs and handshakes upon arrival as the capsule docked with the orbital laboratory.
The spacecraft, named Grace and fifth in the Dragon series, made a soft capture with the ISS’s Harmony module at 4:01 pm IST while flying over the North Atlantic Ocean. Full docking procedures, including power links and pressure checks, took about two more hours to complete.
Shukla is the first Indian astronaut to travel to the ISS.
“The #Ax4 crew -- commander Peggy Whitson, ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, ESA astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, and mission specialist Tibor Kapu -- emerges from the Dragon spacecraft and gets their first look at their home in low Earth orbit,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) posted on X.
The #Ax4 crew—commander Peggy Whitson, @ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, @ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, and mission specialist Tibor Kapu—emerges from the Dragon spacecraft and gets their first look at their home in low Earth orbit. pic.twitter.com/5q0RfoSv4G
— NASA (@NASA) June 26, 2025
“We are happy to be here. It was a long quarantine,” said Whitson, who is making her fifth spaceflight. The four astronauts waved at mission control in Houston during their live interaction.
Soft capture, docking and crew entry
Live footage from NASA showed the Dragon spacecraft approaching the ISS. The docking was confirmed at 4:15 pm IST. After its launch from Florida at 12:01 hours on Wednesday, the spacecraft fired thrusters in a series of controlled manoeuvres to position itself for docking.
The approach progressed faster than expected, with mission control skipping planned pauses at “waypoint-1” and “waypoint-2”, allowing the docking to advance by nearly 30 minutes.
At just 20 metres from the ISS, the spacecraft used laser-based sensors and cameras to align precisely with the docking port on the Harmony module. Once soft capture was achieved, hard-mating followed through 12 sets of mechanical hooks and the activation of power and communication links.
The ISS crew then carried out leak checks and pressure equalisation between the two spacecraft. The hatch was opened after ensuring pressure levels matched those at sea level on Earth.
Whitson entered the space station at 5:53 pm IST, followed by Shukla, Slawosz and Kapu.
Shukla first Indian on ISS, others also make history
Shukla, a test pilot with the Indian Air Force, is the second Indian to go to space and the first since Rakesh Sharma’s mission in 1984.
Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, an engineer and project astronaut from the European Space Agency, is the second person from Poland to travel to space, and the first since 1978.
Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer and mission specialist, is the second Hungarian to go into space. Hungary’s last space mission took place 45 years ago.
The ISS already has seven astronauts onboard – Nicole Ayers, Anne McClain and Jonny Kim from NASA, Takuya Onishi from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), and Roscosmos cosmonauts Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky.
(With inputs from agencies)
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