Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who created history by becoming the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS), was on Sunday awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest peacetime gallantry award.
In June last year, Shukla became the second Indian to have gone to space and the first one to set foot on the ISS as part of the Axiom-4 mission.
Shukla's 18-day space odyssey came 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma flew aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984.
As a fighter pilot, Shukla has an impressive record of 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier and An-32.
On the eve of the Republic Day, President Droupadi Murmu approved gallantry awards to 70 armed forces personnel, including six who would receive the honour posthumously. -- PTI
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