New Delhi: Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s much-anticipated spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) has been rescheduled to June 8, following a change in NASA’s launch calendar.
The Axiom-4 private mission, originally set for May 29, will now lift off at 6:41 p.m. IST (9:11 a.m. EDT) on Sunday, June 8, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Shukla will become the second Indian to fly into space after Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 Soviet mission, and the first to travel to the ISS.
India has paid nearly $64 million (₹550 crore) for Shukla’s training and flight under the Axiom-4 mission, which is being operated by Axiom Space in collaboration with NASA and SpaceX.
Aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Shukla will serve as pilot. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will command the mission, while mission specialists Sławosz Uznański of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary will also join the crew. The team will spend two weeks on the ISS conducting 60 scientific experiments.
Axiom-4 marks a return to space for India, Poland, and Hungary after more than four decades. For India, it also serves as a precursor to the country’s ambitious Gaganyaan mission, which aims to launch astronauts aboard an indigenously developed spacecraft.
Shukla, who trained in Russia, the US, Europe, and Japan, is one of four Indian Air Force officers selected for India’s human spaceflight program. His mission is expected to provide India with critical experience and insights ahead of its crewed missions planned for later this decade.
ISRO’s Gaganyaan program aims to establish an Indian space station by 2035 and achieve a crewed Moon landing by 2040.
