Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom-4 mission, was captured enjoying a meal with his crewmates shortly before his scheduled return to Earth on July 14. Astronaut Jonny Kim shared photos of the occasion, showing Shukla laughing and eating in microgravity alongside other crew members. The Axiom-4 mission launched on June 25 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with the Dragon spacecraft docking with the ISS on June 26 after a journey of approximately 28 hours. During their two-week mission, Shukla and his colleagues orbited Earth about 230 times, witnessing the same number of sunrises and covering a distance of roughly one crore kilometers. The crew experienced the ‘high beta period,’ where the ISS received constant sunlight, necessitating precise temperature control by NASA. The joyful meal shared by the crew highlights the camaraderie and the shared experience of representing humanity in space.
