Gp Capt Shubhanshu Shukla, pilot of Axiom Mission 4 and the first Indian on the International Space Station, was named for the Ashoka Chakra in 2026.
Axiom Mission 4
Axiom Mission 4 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on 25 June 2025 and docked with the International Space Station the next day. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force flew as mission pilot. He became the first Indian to visit the station and the second Indian in space, after Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
ISRO reported that he completed all seven of his microgravity experiments. The Dragon spacecraft undocked on 14 July and was due to splash down off California on 15 July.
The Defence Ministry's Republic Day list of 25 January 2026 gives no account of the award. It records one line: 29014 Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, Flying (Pilot), Air Force, Ashoka Chakra.
A fighter pilot from Lucknow
Shukla was born in Lucknow on 10 October 1985. He passed out of the National Defence Academy in 2005 and was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force in June 2006. ISRO selected him in 2019 as one of four candidates for its Gaganyaan programme.
Of the recipients from 2009 onward, he and Major D. Sreeram Kumar are the only two not decorated posthumously. President Droupadi Murmu conferred it at Kartavya Path on the 77th Republic Day, 26 January 2026.
What the citation recorded
The official citation text could not be read for this article, and the Defence Ministry's list records only the name and award. This is a summary, not the citation. DD News linked the award to courage, leadership and presence of mind under demanding conditions during his mission to the International Space Station.
Cover image: NASA Johnson Space Center, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Axiom_Mission_4_astronauts_Peggy_Whitson_and_Shubhanshu_Shukla_(iss073e0252954).jpg