India is brimming with pride after Shubhanshu Shukla became the first astronaut from the country to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday, in a boost to the South Asian giant’s bid to become a space power.

The mission has generated a huge interest in India as it comes 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to fly to space aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984.

Houston-based Axiom Space launched its fourth crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) overnight, lifting off on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KCS), in Florida. The mission got underway early Wednesday, lifting off from KSC's Launch Complex-39A at 2:31 a.m. EDT (0631 GMT).