AGENCY
new york, june 9
Marking India’s quiet return to human spaceflight after four decades, Axiom-4 (Ax-4) will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, carrying not just cutting-edge science but also an Indian Air Force officer.
Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla, a serving pilot with the Indian Air Force, will take the controls as pilot of this mission—the first human spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) by Axiom Space, a US-based private space company, selected by NASA for the mission. He will fly alongside a four-member crew aboard the Dragon spacecraft, developed by SpaceX, the aerospace company founded by Elon Musk. Axiom-4 will take off at 5:52 pm IST on Tuesday.
The mission will be commanded by veteran NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, with mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, completing the crew. The spacecraft will be launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, developed by SpaceX.
The Dragon spacecraft is expected to dock with the International Space Station approximately 28 hours after launch, at around 10:00 p.m. IST on June 11. With this flight, Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla will become the first Indian astronaut to travel to the ISS and the second Indian to go to space, following Rakesh Sharma’s historic mission aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Notably, Sharma, who has mentored Shukla for this mission, flew as part of a collaboration with the Russian space agency on Soyuz T-11. The mission is a true demonstration of international collaboration. Over the course of 14 days, the astronauts will conduct nearly 60 scientific experiments on behalf of 40 different countries, including the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates, and several European nations. Group Captain Shukla will carry out a series of experiments in microgravity, ranging from muscle regeneration to space farming.
These studies have been developed by ISRO in collaboration with Indian scientists from leading research institutions.
During their stay aboard the ISS, the Ax-4 crew is also expected to interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, school students, and space industry leaders, further strengthening global and national engagement with the mission.
And as a reminder of home, Shukla revealed during a press briefing on June 3 that he will be carrying a taste of India with him—’aam ras’, ‘gajar ka halwa’, and ‘moong dal halwa’—offering a sweet nod to the life he leaves behind, even if just for a few days.
