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New Delhi: The launch date of the Axiom-4 mission carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station is, as of now, no earlier than June 19, 2025. Additionally, the SpaceX team has confirmed that all the issues that led to the earlier postponement of the launch have been duly addressed. Further updates, if any, will be shared accordingly, says a statement issued by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
This news is about NASA’s Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), a private spaceflight set to launch to the International Space Station (ISS). The pilot of this mission would be ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer.
The Axiom Mission will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, making Shubhanshu Shukla the first Indian astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS) on a private mission.
According to the official website of Axiom Space, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, a distinguished pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF), has been handpicked as one of the four astronauts for ISRO’s historic Gaganyaan mission, India’s inaugural human space flight endeavour.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and Director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The Axiom Mission 4 will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and travel to the space station. Once docked, the private astronauts plan to spend up to 14 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting a mission comprised of science, outreach, and commercial activities. The mission will send the first ISRO astronaut to the station as part of a joint effort between NASA and ISRO.
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