Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force is poised to become the first Indian in over 40 years to travel to space and board the International Space Station (ISS). He is scheduled to lift off on June 25 as part of Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission. The mission will launch aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking a major step forward in India’s human spaceflight journey.
Shukla was previously named one of the four astronauts selected for the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) landmark Gaganyaan mission, India’s first indigenous human spaceflight program.
Who is Shubhanshi Shukla?
Shukla was born on October 10, 1985, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He started his career in the IAF from June 2006 when he was commissioned into the fighter wing. As an experienced combat leader and test pilot, he has accumulated over 2,000 hours of flight experience on a diverse range of aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32. He was promoted to the rank of Group Captain in March 2024, a testament to his exemplary service.
The journey toward space began in 2019 when ISRO selected him for specialised training. He underwent a year-long, rigorous preparation at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow, Russia. On February 27, 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly introduced Shukla as one of the elite astronauts training for the Gaganyaan mission, which is targeted for launch in 2025.
Axiom-4 space mission
The Axiom-4 mission, which signifies a return to space for India, Hungary, and Poland, is set to launch onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket at 2:31 a.m. EDT (12:01 p.m. IST) on Wednesday, June 25.
The Axiom-4 commercial mission will be commanded by Peggy Whitson, with Shukla serving as mission pilot. Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski will join them as mission specialists.
This launch date follows several postponements. The mission was initially slated for May 29, then pushed to June 8, June 10, and June 11 due to a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon-9 rocket’s boosters and leaks detected in the aging Russian module of the ISS. Further delays moved the launch from June 19 to June 22 to allow NASA to evaluate ISS operations after repairs to the Russian module.
The crew will embark on their journey to the orbiting laboratory in a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, launching from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre. The targeted docking time at the ISS is approximately 7 a.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. IST) on Thursday, June 26.
List of India’s Astronauts who contributed to India’s space legacy
- Rakesh Sharma: The first Indian in space (1984), spent nearly 8 days on the Soyuz-T11 mission, conducting scientific experiments.
- Kalpana Chawla: The first Indian-origin woman in space (1997). Tragically died during her second Space Shuttle Columbia mission in 2003 upon re-entry.
- Sunita Williams: Holds records for longest spacewalk by a woman and most spacewalks by a woman astronaut. Has completed three space expeditions (2006, 2012, 2024), including running the first space marathon.
- Raja Chari: A U.S. Air Force Brigadier General, he trained with NASA (2017) and commanded the SpaceX Crew-3 mission (the first NASA rookie to do so since 1981), also part of the Artemis team.
- Sirisha Bandla: An American aeronautical engineer and Virgin Galactic’s VP of Government Affairs, she became the third Indian-origin woman to travel to space on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 flight.
(With PTI Inputs)