Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Wednesday announced that Indian Air Force Group Captain Subhanshu Shukla has officially joined the four-member crew of the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS), scheduled to lift off around 12:01 PM IST today.
In a post on social media platform X, Singh wrote: “Update on #AXIOM4 Mission to International Space Station (ISS): Indian astronaut Group Captain Subhanshu Shukla formally joins the other three crew members for the much-awaited launch, as of now, scheduled around 12:01 PM IST today.”
The mission is targeting a launch at 2:31 a.m. EDT (12:01 p.m. IST) from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Shukla will pilot the crew aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket, with docking scheduled for 7:00 a.m. EDT (4:00 p.m. IST) on Thursday.
The Ax-4 crew includes Commander Peggy Whitson, a veteran NASA astronaut and current Director of Human Spaceflight at Axiom Space, along with mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
This flight holds special significance for India, as it marks the country’s return to human spaceflight after over four decades. Group Captain Shukla follows in the footsteps of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who became the first Indian in space in 1984 aboard Soyuz T-11.
The Ax-4 mission is the second human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary and represents the first time all three nations will send astronauts to the ISS as part of a government-sponsored mission.
The launch is a milestone moment for India’s space ambitions and a major step toward the Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission scheduled for 2025.
