Indian Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to Pilot Crew
The Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, piloted by Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla with three other crew members, has been delayed and will now be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 8 at 6:41 pm IST. The mission was earlier scheduled for launch on May 29. The announcement was made by Axiom Space, a US-based commercial human spaceflight firm, and NASA.
“After reviewing @Space_Station flight schedule, NASA and its partners are shifting launch opportunities for several upcoming missions. The new targeted no-earlier-than-launch opportunities, pending operational readiness, are: Axiom Mission 4: 9:11 am EDT, Sunday, June 8,” NASA said in a post on X.
Shukla’s travel to space, onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, comes four decades after Rakesh Sharma’s iconic spaceflight onboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Besides Shukla, the Ax-4 crew includes members from Poland and Hungary, marking each nation’s first mission to the International Space Station in history and the second government-sponsored human spaceflight mission in over 40 years.
Shukla will conduct seven experiments in space that are aimed at encouraging microgravity research in India which hopes to build its own space station by 2035 and send astronauts to the moon by 2047. ISRO has drawn up plans to focus on India-centric food to carry out experiments on the ISS, including sprouting methi (Fenugreek) and moong (green gram) in microgravity conditions.
The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission will also include Slawosz Uznanski, European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut, who will be the second Polish astronaut since 1978. Tibor Kapu will be the second national Hungarian astronaut since 1980. Peggy Whitson will command her second commercial human spaceflight mission, adding to her standing record for the longest cumulative time in space by an American astronaut.
The Ax-4 crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the space station and spend up to 14 days at the orbiting laboratory.
