Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS) will take place in May 2025.
Group Captain Shukla will be the pilot of the upcoming Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4), which is the fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS.
Axiom Space posted on X: “With a proven track record of excellence and experience, Axiom Space is proud to have successfully completed three Private Astronaut Missions, with a fourth scheduled for NET May 2025. We take pride in being the trusted provider for multiple countries to #ExperienceSpace and conduct groundbreaking research #ForEarth”.
NASA said that the mission is targeted to launch no earlier than May 2025 from its Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S.
Group Captain Shukla, who is also one of the four astronaut-designates selected for Gaganyaan mission of ISRO, will become the first Indian astronaut to go to the ISS, and the first Indian to go to space in the last 40 years.
Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will command the commercial mission, European Space Agency project astronauts Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary are also part of the crew.
After the launch from the Kennedy Space Center, the mission crew will spend 14 days on board the ISS to conduct some experiments.
Axiom Space said that the Ax-4 research complement includes around 60 scientific studies and activities representing 31 countries, including the U.S., India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations across Europe.
“This will be the most research and science-related activities conducted on an Axiom Space mission aboard the International Space Station to date, underscoring the mission’s global significance and collaborative nature to advance microgravity research in low-Earth orbit (LEO),” it said.
It added that the ISRO-led research, in collaboration with NASA and ESA, focuses on advancing microgravity research aboard the ISS to enhance theunderstanding of biological processes in microgravity and develop strategies for long-duration space missions.
It said that ISRO’s research studies will focus on investigating physical and cognitive impact of computer screens in microgravity, studying growth, metabolism, and genetics of three microalgae strains in microgravity vs. ground, comparing growth, cellular responses, and biochemistry of two cyanobacteria strains in microgravity, identifying pathways of skeletal muscle dysfunction in microgravity and exploring therapies, investigating the impacts of spaceflight on germination and growth of crop seeds, examining spaceflight impacts on six crop seed varieties and identifying molecular mechanisms of resilience in extreme environments.
Published – April 03, 2025 04:38 pm IST
