The Dragon capsule carrying the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) crew — Grace — cruised silently through space, its nose cone open and docking sensors primed, and eventually docked with the International Space Station Thursday — marking the first time an Indian has entered the orbiting lab. Soft docking was achieved around 4.02pm IST, and overall docking procedure was completed at 4.16pm.Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla made history. Grace, launched yesterday from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), executed a series of precisely timed orbit-raising manoeuvres before it aligned with the ISS. The 28-hour chase through space is typical of Dragon missions, but for Shukla, it’s an extraordinary voyage. A serving Indian Air Force officer and test pilot, he’s now flying not just on behalf of a nation, but also on behalf of a new space era.The mission symbolises a maturing space ecosystem, where private firms are shaping access to low-Earth orbit. With NAsa’s blessing and SpaceX’s Dragon at the helm, Ax-4 represents a fusion of old expertise and new ambition. It’s no longer just space agencies launching astronauts; it’s space companies partnering across borders.For India, this is also a step forward in human spaceflight. While Gaganyaan, the country’s maiden crewed mission, is still being readied, Shukla’s flight underscores the growing opportunities for Indian astronauts to fly aboard international platforms — training, learning, and strengthening capabilities before they eventually lift off from Indian soil.After hours of cruise, once Grace was within range, it began a slow and measured approach. Every manoeuvre went as planned and at each stage, ground controllers and onboard systems assessed progress and gave “go” commands.Given a clean approach, the ground station and ISS allowed Grace to skip the halts at “waypoint-1” and “waypoint-2”, which advanced the docking by nearly half-an-hour. At around 20 metres, Grace made its final approach, using a suite of laser-based sensors and cameras, aligned precisely with the docking port on the station. The spacecraft then moved forward at just a few centimetres per second and made contact.The soft-docking was achieved at 4.02pm IST and minutes later, declaring the arrival of the crew at the ISS. Minutes later, the hard capture was also completed. The process to connect the ISS umbilicals began and ISS declared that the docking process was complete at 4.16pm.The crew will now wait for mandatory leak checks and hatch opening procedures that will allow the pressure inside Grace to be the same as that in ISS — matching pressure levels at sea level on Earth. Once this is complete, they will float into ISS.
