NASA, ISRO to launch Axiom Mission 4 on June 10; to be piloted by Indian Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla

NASA, in collaboration with ISRO, said that Axiom Mission 4, piloted by Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, will launch on June 10. It is the fourth private astronaut mission from Axiom Space and the first to carry an ISRO astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS).

Axiom Mission 4

Axiom Mission 4 fulfils a commitment made by US President Donald Trump and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send the first ISRO astronaut to the station.

The launch scheduled for 8:22 AM (local time) on June 10 will start from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The crew will travel aboard a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, lifted by a Falcon 9 rocket.

Docking with the ISS is expected at 12:30 PM (local time) on June 11.

As reported by the news agency ANI, NASA said the mission will include five joint science investigations and two in-orbit STEM education demonstrations.

The collaboration marks the long-standing partnership between NASA and ISRO to advance scientific research and space exploration.

The crew

Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will lead the mission. ISRO’s Shubhanshu Shukla, a distinguished pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF), will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists included are ESA astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

This will be the first time that the astronauts from Poland and Hungary stay aboard the ISS, further expanding international participation in space missions.

 Who is Shubhanshu Shukla?

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is one of the most efficient pilots in the Indian Air Force (IAF) who has been handpicked as one of the four astronauts for the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) historic Gaganyaan mission — the nation’s inaugural human space flight endeavour.

He will be the first Indian to join the ISS, and only the second ever in orbit. 

Interestingly, the Axiom-4 mission will mark India's return to space 41 years after Rakesh Sharma's historic spaceflight onboard Russia's Soyuz mission in 1984.

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