Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force (IAF) created history on Wednesday by becoming the first Indian astronaut to travel as a Pilot to the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX launched the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 4. Piloted by India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, the spacecraft lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
After launching on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, the crew will travel to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
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Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is heading to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom-4 Mission.
”Mission to International Space Station (ISS): Group Captain Subhanshu Shukla to carry out 7 exclusive microgravity experiments during the Mission,” Union Minister Jitendra Singh said in his post on X.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force is among the four-member multi-country crew of Ax-4 that will be spending two weeks on the ISS.
The human spaceflight mission, Axiom 4, is a feat for space development for India, Hungary, and Poland. Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and will command the Axiom-4 mission. India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, representing ISRO, will serve as the pilot, joined by mission specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, both representing the European Space Agency.