NEW DELHI: Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on Friday shared a breathtaking timelapse video of India from space, offering citizens a glimpse of his journey aboard the International Space Station (ISS).Posting the clip on X, Shukla wrote: “Watch the video in landscape with screen brightness high. While on orbit I tried to capture pictures and videos so that I can share this journey with you all. This is a timelapse video of Bharat from space. The ISS is moving from south to north from the Indian Ocean, along the east coast of India.”He explained that the purple flashes seen in the video were thunderstorms across the country, followed by the Himalayas fading into view, and then a sunrise over the orbit — all against the backdrop of shimmering stars. “It truly is a mesmerising dance of natural elements turning into one beautiful spectacle,” Shukla wrote, adding that despite heavy monsoon clouds he managed to “steal a few shots of Bharat.” “Unfortunately I was up there during the monsoon season and it was mostly cloudy, yet I managed to steal a few shots of Bharat, one of which you are seeing. When you see this I want you to feel as if you are sitting in the cupola((window in ISS) and witnessing it yourself,” Shukla added. On Thursday, Shukla addressed a press conference in Delhi alongside Union minister Jitendra Singh and ISRO officials, where he described the Axiom-4 mission as a historic achievement and a “mission for the entire nation.” Expressing gratitude to the government, ISRO scientists, researchers and citizens, he said: “I truly felt that this was a mission owned by every Indian.”The astronaut recalled his emotions while viewing Earth from orbit, remarking, “Bharat aaj bhi antariksha se saare jahan se achha dikhta hai.”Sharing mission details, Shukla noted that the crew travelled aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, spent two weeks at the ISS conducting experiments, and returned via the Pacific Ocean near San Diego.ISRO Chairman V Narayanan hailed the mission as a prestigious milestone, highlighting India’s rapid progress in space technology over the past decade. He pointed to recent successes such as the GSLV-F16 launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite and the growth of India’s private space ecosystem from a single startup to more than 300 today.The Axiom-4 mission, he said, underlined India’s rising global stature in space exploration and collaboration.
