(MENAFN- IANS) New Delhi, Aug 21 (IANS) Reaching the International Space Station (ISS) was a mission of the 140 crore Indians, astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla -- the first from the country to reach the orbiting lab -- said on Thursday.

IAF Group Captain Shukla, who achieved the feat on June 26, called it the "mission of an entire nation".

After spending 18 days on the ISS, as part of the US-based Axiom Space's Mission 4 along with astronauts from the US, Poland, and Hungary, he returned to Earth on July 15. Following a month-long rehabilitation in the US, Shukla returned to India on August 17.

"I would like to thank every citizen of this country who behaved in a way that made it feel like they actually owned this mission. I truly felt that this was a mission for the entire nation," Group Captain Shukla said at a press briefing.

He also thanked the government and ISRO for making the mission possible.

"I would like to start by thanking the people who have made this mission possible. There are multiple layers to this, not just one person. I will start by thanking the Government of India for conceiving the mission and finally making it happen. I would like to thank ISRO for enabling this entire mission. The people, my colleagues at ISRO, who have worked so hard for successfully executing this mission," he added.

Sharing his experience, Shukla noted that being on the space station "is very different from what you learn on the ground. It was an unbelievable experience".

His 18-day stay aboard the ISS was packed with several experiments led by ISRO and other activities on the orbital lab.

"Crew Dragon is one of the three vehicles that can currently take humans to space. We were also fortunate to have training on the Soyuz, which launches from Russia, as well as on Crew Dragon. The ISS, as you know, is an orbiting laboratory that has been operational since 2000. It has been conducting cutting-edge science and is actually a perfect example of international collaboration," he added.

His experience of piloting the Axiom-4 mission is set to be crucial for India's Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission.

“This is just the first step in Bharat's journey of human spaceflight," he had said earlier.

On Monday, the IAF officer also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the PM's official residence in New Delhi and apprised him about his mission to the space lab.

Following the meeting, PM Modi took to X on Monday and posted: "Had a great interaction with Shubhanshu Shukla. We discussed a wide range of subjects, including his experiences in space, progress in science and technology, as well as India's ambitious Gaganyaan mission."

"India is proud of his feat," he added.

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