'Welcome, Earthlings': Axiom-4 crew checks in from Grace; Shubhanshu Shukla says, 'all i wanted was to go'
As the
Dragon capsule Grace
soared into the cosmos with the Axiom-4 crew aboard, the warmth inside the spacecraft matched the awe of space outside. 'Welcome, Earthlings,' said veteran astronaut
Peggy Whitson
, her voice laced with joy and mischief, as she beamed in from orbit in what was the crew's first in-flight broadcast.
Grace was flying over Europe when the crew began their broadcast, they had just passed over Italy, Sicily, the Greek islands, and the Balkans and by the time of the transmission, it had moved slightly north, flying over Hungary and Poland.
'We're in the newest capsule, and we're loving her a bunch.' Three rookie astronauts joined Whitson — Group Captain
Shubhanshu Shukla
, Hungary's Tibor Kapu, and Poland's Sławosz Uznański — for a mission not just of science, but of spirit. And floating among them, light as a whisper, was 'Joy' — a soft, white swan chosen as their
zero-gravity indicator
, and as a symbol of something deeper.
'Joy started to float just as we injected into orbit,' said Whitson. 'Sometimes we have to go find her—she drifts all over the capsule.' But Joy is more than a plush toy. 'In Indian culture,' explained Shukla, 'the swan symbolises wisdom—the ability to discern what matters from what doesn't. That means a lot in this golden age of distraction.'
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Undo
For Shukla, the moment of launch was powerful and humbling. 'After 30 days of quarantine, all I wanted was to go,' he recalled. 'The ride was amazing — like being pushed back into your seat. And then suddenly — silence. You unbuckle, and you're just floating.'
Even the discomfort of space adaptation didn't dim his wonder. 'Since yesterday, I've apparently been sleeping a lot — which is a good sign!' he laughed. 'I'm learning everything anew — how to walk, how to read, how to be.'
He reiterated how this was not his mission alone but that of the entire nation and thanked everybody who supported the mission, including his family and wife.
Kapu, too, was reflective. 'We were seconds away from being sent back to quarantine, so those last minutes before liftoff were charged with energy,' he said. No amount of training—centrifuge spins or fighter jet dives—prepared them for the real thing. 'But when we launched — it was pure exhilaration.'
Kapur reiterated that Joy is also a tribute to Sid, Shukla's six-year-old son who loves animals. 'Every time I look at her, I think about him—and about the hopeful future this mission represents,' he said. 'A team that has joy is a team that is healthy. That's true not just for us, but for everyone who helped us get here.'
The crew has already held a small ceremony aboard Grace, placing their mission patch — featuring Earth at its centre — inside the capsule. 'That's how we see the world from up here,' said Kapu. 'We represent India, the US, Poland, Hungary — together, nearly a third of the world's population. This mission is for all of you.'
Whitson returned near the end of the broadcast with her signature wit: 'Everyone knows how much I like to talk!' she grinned. 'We've got a lot of science coming up — and it's really special to be bringing three nations back to space together.'
As the crew continued its journey to rendezvous with the
International Space Station
, one thing is clear: this mission isn't just about where they were going, but who they were becoming — astronauts, teammates, and a family in orbit, carried forward by Grace, and buoyed by Joy.
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