Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla back on terra firma after 18-day space expedition

After 18 days in space, Group Captain and astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla experienced gravity again on Tuesday. Stepping out of the Dragon capsule with a grin and the Indian flag on his shoulder, Shukla, or Shux, became the second Indian to travel to space and the first to enter the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying pilot Shukla and three other crew members, mission commander Peggy Whitson and project astronauts Tibor Kapu and Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, splashed down off the…