Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on Thursday in Delhi. His meeting comes two days after Shukla met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over a month after returning to Earth
in July after successfully completing NASA’s Axiom-4 space mission.
Shubhanshu Shukla is the first Indian astronaut to travel to the International Space Station (ISS). The Axiom-4 mission, launched from Florida on June 25, carried four astronauts: Shukla, Peggy Whitson (USA), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary). The spacecraft docked with the International Space Station on June 26. Shukla returned to Earth on July 15 and arrived in India on Sunday.
#WATCH | Astronaut and Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla meets Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/5zoAiMpS7C
— ANI (@ANI) August 21, 2025
Recently, Rajnath Singh has slammed the Opposition for its protest during a discussion in Lok Sabha on astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla’s journey to the International Space Station, which led to the House’s adjournment.
Taking to X, Singh had said, “It was very unfortunate the way the Opposition created a ruckus in the House and did not allow it to function.”
