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.

Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla shared many details of his life at the International Space Station during his 18-minute interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday from the space laboratory that is orbiting the earth at an altitude of 400 km.