Overview

• At the prime minister’s residence, Shukla gifted the Axiom-4 mission patch and showed Earth photos taken from the ISS, as Modi praised him and called the effort a first step in human space exploration.
• The Lok Sabha set aside three hours to discuss his ISS visit and its role in building a ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’, though proceedings were disrupted by protests over Bihar’s voter roll revision.
• Science minister Jitendra Singh told the House India’s seat cost about ₹548 crore and said the Axiom-4 research directly supports Gaganyaan, citing studies on muscle function, cognition, seed growth and cyanobacteria in microgravity.
• Shukla, the first Indian to visit the ISS and the second Indian to travel to space, spent 18 days on station conducting more than 60 experiments and around 20 outreach sessions with a multinational crew.
• Lucknow’s mayor proposed naming the road to Shukla’s home and a city park after him, and he is slated to join National Space Day events in New Delhi on August 22–23.