Indian astronaut-designate Shubhanshu Shukla will go aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as the first one, with his flight scheduled as early as May 2025. NASA announced this in an official public announcement regarding the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), in which Shukla is a member of a private astronaut mission led by Axiom Space.
Shukla’s induction marks a milestone for India’s emerging space mission since he will be the second Indian to go into space, after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s historic 1984 flight, which occurred four decades ago.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla set to fly to space station
Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has been chosen to be the astronaut designate and the mission pilot of Ax-4. His flight is historic, and his mission will be the second in the series following that of Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma, the first and, so far, the only Indian to fly to space as early as May 2025.
Shukla’s mission will be a milestone not only for him but also for India’s quest to venture into space. He will be part of a group of international astronauts from all over the world, including former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, the mission commander, and two other astronauts—Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Hungary’s Tibor Kapu.
Shubhanshu Shukla’s Ax-4 role paving the way for Gaganyaan mission
Shubhanshu Shukla’s task on Ax-4 follows appointment as one of India’s top astronauts for its new Gaganyaan program. India’s first manned spaceflight program, the Gaganyaan program, has been scheduled to send between one and three astronauts to low Earth orbit (LEO) on a mission that would not exceed three days’ duration. Shukla’s mission on the Ax-4 provides him an opportunity to share immense value as one of the collaborative team members from India, NASA, and Axiom Space.
This collaboration of India’s space agency, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), with other space agencies around the world is a giant step towards enhancing India’s ability in human space exploration. Shukla’s selection for Ax-4 is not only a personal achievement but also a valuable learning experience prior to the Gaganyaan mission.
India appoints Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair as fall-back astronaut for Ax-4 mission
So that the mission stays under a fall-back plan in case something fails, India has also chosen Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair to be the fall-back astronaut for Ax-4. If the worst-case scenario happens and Shukla would not be on board under this circumstance, Nair would be ready right away as his replacement, en route to the ISS.
This standby appointment is typical in space missions, to have an experienced astronaut on standby for whatever purpose. Balakrishnan Nair’s appointment also reflects the strategic thinking of India when it comes to space missions, to ready the nation for anything.
The Ax-4 mission is one of the several NASA-ISRO collaborations that aim to enhance cooperation between the two space agencies. In this collaboration, India purchased one seat for one of its astronauts on Axiom Space’s next flight. The collaboration indicates greater cooperation between NASA and ISRO, reflecting the two countries’ commitment to space exploration together.
Most importantly, this cooperation does not include some of the bilateral tariffs, which were introduced by the last US President Donald Trump administration. This exclusion is a testament that India-US cooperation in space places top priority on their space cooperation, which indicates that space exploration is on the top agenda of both countries.
About the Ax-4 mission
Ax-4 is the fourth Axiom Space-sponsored commercial ISS business spaceflight. Ax-4 will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Falcon 9 will be both the rocket that places the spacecraft into orbit and the rocket that transports the astronauts to the ISS.
When the crew reaches the ISS, they have to remain there for a maximum of 14 days. They are traveling to the ISS to remain for a variety of scientific study, education outreach, and commercial missions. The flight would be significant both because of having Shubhanshu Shukla on board and because of the Polish and Hungarian astronauts traveling to the ISS for the first time.
Ax-4 follows successful private astronaut flights to the ISS
Ax-4 will follow a series of successful private astronaut flights to the ISS, a new era of space exploration. The initial private astronaut flight, Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), launched in April 2022, and the crew remained for 17 days on the ISS. Ax-2, launched in May 2023, carried four private astronauts to the space station for an eight-day mission.
The last private astronaut flight, Ax-3, took place in January 2024 when the astronauts spent 18 days on the ISS. The flights open up to a new path of commercial space travel, and private corporations such as Axiom Space are offering access to human space exploration irrespective of the historic government space agencies such as NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos.
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