sb.scorecardresearch

Published 09:53 IST, January 31st 2025

Who is Shubhanshu Shukla: IAF Pilot, First Indian Astronaut to Travel to ISS on Nasa's Axiom Mission

Shubhanshu Shukla, an IAF officer and ISRO astronaut, has been selected as the pilot for Ax-4 Mission.

Reported by: Digital Desk
Follow: Google News Icon
  • share
 Shubhanshu Shukla
Shubhanshu Shukla, First Indian astronaut to Pilot Axiom-4 | Image: X

Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer and ISRO astronaut, has been selected as the pilot for Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), a private spaceflight set to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in the spring of 2025, NASA announced on Thursday.

The mission, which will depart from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, will make Shubhanshu Shukla the first Indian astronaut to travel to the ISS on a private mission.

Addressing a webinar on Thursday, Shukla said he was “really excited to go into microgravity" as the pilot for the Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station. He also said he would try to perform some yoga postures on the ISS.

Shukla also plans to take items representing different regions of India and the country as a whole with him to the ISS.

He said ISRO had asked a university in India to select different items, representing the country’s diversity, to send to space.

Shubhanshu Shukla’s Axiom Space Mission 

Axiom Space has previously conducted three private astronaut missions to the ISS. The first, Ax-1, launched in April 2022 for a 17-day stay, followed by Ax-2 in May 2023, and Ax-3 in January 2024, which remained docked for 18 days, news agency IANS reported.

According to NASA, former US space agency astronaut and Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight, Peggy Whitson, will command the commercial mission and Shukla will be the mission pilot.

The two mission specialists are European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

“Once docked, the private astronauts plan to spend up to 14 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting a mission consisting of science, outreach, and commercial activities," NASA said.

The private mission will also carry the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the space station.

Whitson aslo praised the Ax-4 crew’s dedication to space exploration, highlighting their commitment to pushing boundaries and creating new opportunities for their nations.

Updated 09:53 IST, January 31st 2025