Indian Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla Heads To Quarantine With Crew As Ax-4 Launch Nears

Advertisement

Last Updated:May 25, 2025, 19:39 IST

The four-member unit completed months of rigorous grooming crossed Axiom Space, NASA, and SpaceX facilities to hole for the 14-day ngo to the International Space Station

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket volition motorboat the Ax-4 unit aboard a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS from the Launch Complex astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre successful Florida connected June 8.

Indian Air Force aviator and astronaut-designate Shubhanshu Shukla and 3 different crewmates are headed into quarantine arsenic motorboat preparations statesman for the Axiom Mission-4 (Ax-4).

The backstage collaborative ngo with Axiom Space, NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) volition people the archetypal clip an Indian astronaut volition sojourn the International Space Station (ISS).

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket volition motorboat the Ax-4 unit aboard a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS from the Launch Complex astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre successful Florida connected June 8, 6:41 p.m. IST, taxable to last review. During the 14-day mission docked to the orbiting laboratory, the astronauts volition behaviour planetary outreach activities, microgravity research, and exertion demonstrations.

The US-based backstage abstraction bureau Axiom Space organised a ceremonial send-off for the unit up of their launch. “The unit is connected their mode to quarantine. Before they went, Axiom Space employees came unneurotic to celebrate. The unit send-off is simply a contented that pays tribute to the dedication and tireless efforts of the unit anterior to the unit embarking connected their mission," said the bureau connected Sunday.

Shukla – 1 of the 4 astronaut-designates for Gaganyaan, volition service arsenic a aviator connected Ax-4 with erstwhile NASA astronaut and manager of quality spaceflight astatine Axiom Space, Peggy Whitson, arsenic commandant of the commercialized mission.

There volition beryllium 2 ngo specialists – ESA Project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary – besides connected their maiden sojourn to the ISS. “I americium definite this ngo volition beryllium a success," said Shukla astatine the event.

The crew has spent the past respective months undergoing intensive grooming astatine Axiom Space, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and SpaceX facilities. This volition besides beryllium the archetypal government-sponsored formation for India, Poland and Hungary successful much than 40 years. So far, cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma holds the grounds for being the lone Indian to question to abstraction – successful 1984 aboard a Russian Soyuz.

“Around Rs 550 crore has been spent connected this mission, including the grooming costs. But the payment we volition get from this ngo is phenomenal successful presumption of the training, vulnerability to the facilities and the acquisition of jointly conducting experiments successful space," ISRO president Dr V Narayanan had said earlier.

The upcoming commercialized ngo is portion of ISRO’s roadmap to make a sustainable, sustained quality beingness successful abstraction – opening with Gaganyaan successful the adjacent 2 years, and mounting up of Bhartiya Antriksh Station (BAS) by 2035. It has besides shortlisted 7 experiments for the 14-day mission, selected from proposals invited from assorted R&D laboratories crossed India, and past reviewed by inter-disciplinary experts.

The adjacent cardinal milestone is the Launch Readiness Review, acceptable for June 7. During this review, officials from Axiom Space, NASA, and SpaceX volition measure the readiness of the Falcon 9 rocket, the Dragon spacecraft and the systems aboard the ISS.

Location :

First Published:

News india Indian Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla Heads To Quarantine With Crew As Ax-4 Launch Nears