India has celebrated another step on its mission to become a space power, after Shubhanshu Shukla became the first astronaut from the country to blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday.

The first astronauts in more than 40 years from India, Poland and Hungary have arrived at the International Space Station, ferried there by SpaceX on a private flight.

Over the next 14 days, the Ax-4 crew will carry out around 60 scientific studies and activities representing 31 countries, marking the most research-intensive mission Axiom Space has conducted aboard the space station.