IAF's Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla Set To Fly To International Space Station Next Month

New Delhi: In a defining moment for India's space journey, Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will become the first ever Indian astronaut who will travel to the International Space Station next month in May 2025 for an international space mission.

Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) chairperson Dr V Narayanan announced the big development that Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla is set to become the first Indian astronaut to travel to ISS after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, Indian cosmonaut and a former Indian Air Force officer, flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3 in 1984 as part of Soviet Interkosmos programme.

“India poised to script a defining chapter in its Space journey, as the international Space mission carrying an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) has been scheduled for next month, May 2025,” Union Minister of State with Independent Charge for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh shared the news on X, formerly Twitter.

“Group Captain Shukla is to become the first Indian ever to visit the International Space Station and the first Indian astronaut to travel to Space in over four decades after Rakesh Sharma’s iconic 1984 flight aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft,” Dr Jitendra Singh said.

Last year in 2024, Indian Air Force had announced that after touching the sky with glory, it's time for the them to touch space with glory. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair have been chosen for the upcoming Indo-US Axiom-4 mission to the ISS. The prime astronaut, Group Captain Shukla, is an experienced Test Pilot with 2000 hours of flying.

ISRO chairman Dr V Narayanan said that IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will fly to International Space Station next month in May for Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission.

Union Minister of State Dr Jitendra Singh noted that the upcoming collaboration with International space partners will provide strategic momentum to India for future projects including Gaganyaan and among others.

Meanwhile, between May and July 2025, ISRO has lined up several space missions including the launch of PSLV-C61 mission which will carry the state-of-art EOS-09 satellite.

The satellite is equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar, EOS-09 will be capable of capturing high-resolution images of earth’s surface under all weather conditions, day or night.