By Rhea Mogul, CNN
(CNN) 鈥 India has celebrated another step on its mission to become a space power, after Shubhanshu Shukla became the first astronaut from the country to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday.
Shukla was aboard the private Axiom Space Mission 4, or Ax-4, which lifted off from NASA鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the latest mission organized by the Texas-based startup in partnership with Elon Musk鈥檚 rocket venture SpaceX.
It is expected to dock in the space-facing port of the station鈥檚 Harmony module at 7 a.m. ET on Thursday.
The private mission includes decorated former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, as well as S艂awosz Uzna艅ski-Wi艣niewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary 鈥 two other spaceflight novices who will become the first from their countries to visit the ISS.
Shukla, who is the mission鈥檚 pilot, and the others are expected to spend about two weeks aboard the ISS, helping to carry out roughly 60 experiments before returning home.
NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are collaborating on the mission, according to a statement from the US space agency.
Shukla is only the second Indian citizen to travel into space after Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard a Soviet rocket in 1984.
Sharma wished the Ax-4 crew well.
鈥淲ishing you all the very best. To the crew, godspeed,鈥 he said in a video message posted online by the Press Trust of India.
鈥淪pend as much time as possible looking out of the window.鈥
Shukla鈥檚 parents were seen getting emotional as they watched a livestream of the blast-off in the northern city of Lucknow.
鈥淗e鈥檚 the first person, the first Indian in the ISS. It is really a great moment for us Indians,鈥 student Isma Tarikh told Reuters. 鈥淚t is an inspiration for me鈥 Even I want to become something great and be a world contributor just like (Shukla).鈥
Another student, Mohammad Hamughan, called it a 鈥減roud moment for Indians.鈥
He told Reuters: 鈥淚t inspires me to become a space scientist. I have always loved to read about sci-fi and all of the stuff, but this is inspiring for us as a student.鈥
Shukla鈥檚 flight is seen as a precursor to India鈥檚 own Gaganyaan mission, the country鈥檚 first human space mission, set to take off in 2027.
Four Indian air force pilots selected for that mission have completed initial training in Russia and are undergoing further training in India, according to a May statement from the Indian government.
India鈥檚 space ambitions have accelerated under Modi, who was elected to a third term last June and has tried to assert India鈥檚 place on the global stage.
In January, it became only the fourth country to successfully achieve an unmanned docking in space.
The country has also set its sights on building its own space station by 2035, which will be called the Bharatiya Antariksha Station, and launching its first orbital mission to Venus in 2028.
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