Jubilant Indians have been celebrating the successful launch of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission which has taken off with a multi-country crew, including an Indian astronaut.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who's piloting the mission, has become only the second Indian to travel to space.
In just over 26 hours - when the spacecraft docks at the International Space Station (ISS) - Group Captain Shukla will become the first ever Indian to visit Nasa's orbiting laboratory.
His trip comes 41 years after cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to fly to space aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984.
Led by former Nasa astronaut Peggy Whitson - a space veteran who has been commander of ISS twice, has spent more than 675 days in space and done 10 space walks - Ax-4 lifted off from Nasa's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 02:31 EDT, (06:31 GMT; 12:01 India time) on Wednesday.
