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Indian Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla To Fly To Space Station On May 29
Mr Shukla will pilot the Axiom Mission 4, a private astronaut mission launching aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
NDTV News Desk India News
Apr 29, 2025 20:23 pm IST
Published On
Apr 29, 2025 19:50 pm IST
Last Updated On
Apr 29, 2025 20:23 pm IST
Read Time: 2 mins
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The mission will be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre.
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IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will pilot the Axiom Mission 4.The launch is scheduled for May 29 from the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida.Mr Shukla will be accompanied by three astronauts.
New Delhi:
Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 29, Axiom Space Inc announced on Tuesday, as he is set to become the first Indian to do so.According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Mr Shukla will pilot the Axiom Mission 4, a private astronaut mission launching aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. He will be accompanied by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and mission commander, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. The mission, which is jointly being undertaken by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida."Mark your calendars. The #Ax4 crew is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on May 29 at 1:03pm EDT (10:33pm IST) from Florida," Axiom Space Inc said in a post on X. Mark your calendars🚀The #Ax4 crew is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on May 29 at 1:03pm EDT from Florida. https://t.co/fYRkWZEpkK— Axiom Space (@Axiom_Space) April 29, 2025(function(v,d,o,ai){ai=d.createElement("script");ai.defer=true;ai.async=true;ai.src=v.location.protocol+o;d.head.appendChild(ai);})(window, document, "//a.vdo.ai/core/v-ndtv/vdo.ai.js");Once docked, the astronauts are scheduled to spend up to 14 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting a mission comprising science, outreach and commercial activities.Group Captain Shukla will serve as the astronaut designate and Mission Pilot. In an exclusive interview to NDTV earlier, Minister of State (MoS) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said Mr Shukla will focus on "space technology, space bio-manufacturing and bio-astronautics" during the fortnight-long space mission.Mr Shukla will do "fantastically as an astronaut to the space station", ISRO Chairman Dr V Narayanan told NDTV earlier. Incidentally, ISRO is using the Ax-4 flight as an opportunity to master human space flight as part of preparations for the Gaganyaan and Bharatiya Antariksha Station missions.Shukla's travel to space comes four decades after Rakesh Sharma's iconic spaceflight onboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. Uznański, European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut, will be the second Polish astronaut since 1978. Kapu will be the second national Hungarian astronaut since 1980. 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.India has also picked Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair as a designated astronaut, who will become part of Ax-4 should Mr Shukla be unable to fly.
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Shubhanshu Shukla Iss Mission, Axiom Mission 4, NASA