Science News

Axiom 4 mission piloted by Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla to fly to ISS in May 2025

New Delhi: NASA and Axiom Space have announced that the Axiom 4 commercial mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has now been scheduled for May 2025. The mission was actually supposed to launch last year, but was delayed because of a juggling in the schedule of the orbital complex, after a faulty Boeing Starliner returned empty. The Crew 10 Dragon docked with the ISS last month, allowing the Crew 9 mission to return with Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore, Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov. The SpaceX Dragon on the Crew 10 mission was actually being prepped for the Axiom 4 flight. The Axiom 4 crew will be flying to the orbital complex on a brand new SpaceX Dragon.

While the standard crew rotations on the orbital complex are six months long, the Axiom 4 crew will be spending only 14 days in space. Shubhanshu Shukla is the pilot of the mission, which will be commanded by USA’s most experienced astronaut, Peggy Whitson, who will be joined by Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. As the name suggests, the Axiom 4 mission will be the fourth commercial mission to fly to the ISS from America, though Russia has been providing access to space tourists previously on its Soyuz spacecraft. The launch will take place from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

First Gaganyatri in Space

Shubhanshu Shukla will be the first Gaganyatri to reach space with the Axiom 4 mission. The experience gained from the mission is going to be valuable for ISRO, which is developing its own human spaceflight programme and space transport architecture. ISRO has drawn four test pilots from the Indian Air Force as the initial batch of Gaganyatris. ISRO is planning to launch at least three uncrewed Gaganyaan flights over the course of the year, to validate the safety of the brand new hardware. The first crewed Gaganyaan flight is currently slotted for 2026.