'India still looks saare jahan se acha': 41 years later, Shubhanshu Shukla echoes Rakesh Sharma's words

Shubhanshu Shukla

During a farewell ceremony on the International Space Station, astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla spoke about how India looks like from space and echoed astronaut Rakesh Sharma's words 41 years later.

He said, India still looks "saare jahan see acha" from the space above. He expressed a profound admiration for India, and described Bharat to be  ambitious, fearless and full of pride from space.

He also called India "confident" from where he can see it. He signed off, saying that he will soon communicate from Earth as he is all set to return to Earth with the Axiom-4 mission on July 14.

According to NASA, the four astronaut crew, which includes Shukla, is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station on July 14 at 4:34 pm IST. ISRO said that the Dragon spacecraft will follow a series of orbital maneuvers after undocking and is expected to reach near the coast of California on July 15 at 3 pm IST.

The spacecraft will be returning to Earth along with more than 580 pounds of cargo. This includes NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted during the mission.

Four astronauts, including Shukla, are expected to board the spacecraft at 2:25 pm IST on July 14 and carry out all the necessary tests before they begin their journey back to Earth on July 14.