India is brimming with pride after Shubhanshu Shukla became the first astronaut from the country to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday, in a boost to the South Asian giant’s bid to become a space power.

This is the first time in more than 40 years that astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary arrived at the International Space Station.

India's Shubhanshu Shukla, accompanied by three other astronauts, entered the International Space Station, marking the first time since Rakesh Sharma in 1984 that an Indian astronaut reached space. The Axiom-4 mission,