President Murmu Awards Ashoka Chakra to Astronaut Shukla

On Republic Day, President Droupadi Murmu presented Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla with the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award, recognizing his exceptional bravery during a high-risk mission to the International Space Station last year. The ceremony, part of the 77th Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26, highlighted Shukla's role as mission pilot in the Axiom-4 private spaceflight, which marked the first visit to the orbital outpost by an Indian astronaut in over four decades.

Shukla, a 39-year-old Indian Air Force officer from Lucknow, became the second Indian to travel to space when he launched aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on June 25, 2025. The 18-day expedition, organized by U.S.-based Axiom Space in partnership with NASA, the European Space Agency, and India's ISRO, involved a multinational crew including astronauts from Poland and Hungary. After docking with the ISS following a 26-hour journey, Shukla contributed to more than 60 scientific experiments, seven of which were led by ISRO. These included studies on space anemia, cardiovascular effects of microgravity, alloy solidification for advanced materials, and protein crystal...