After a wait of four decades, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is set to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) next month as part of an Axiom-4 mission, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said on Friday, April 18.
Speaking after a high-level meeting to review the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) upcoming plans, Singh confirmed that Shukla would fly as part of Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission, becoming the first Indian to visit the ISS and the first Indian in space since Rakesh Sharma’s historic 1984 mission aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.
“Group Captain Shukla's journey is more than just a flight—it's a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration,” Singh said.
India plans to conduct two crewed space flights by 2028, Jitendra Singh told parliament. The budget for this has been doubled to USD 2.32 billion (approximately INR 198 billion) from an initial outlay of USD 1.1 billion (approximately INR 93 billion) after the scope of the programme was expanded.
Shukla’s experiences aboard the ISS will assist the ISRO as he travels on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which will be launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will command this commercial mission, while Shukla, 39, will serve as the pilot. He is expected to stay for about two weeks, during which he will conduct research and experiments.
Shukla, an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot, will be accompanied by two mission specialists—Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. This mission will not only send the first ISRO astronaut to the ISS but will also mark the first stay aboard the station for astronauts from Poland and Hungary.
Shukla’s journey began when he was commissioned into the IAF fighter wing in June 2006. As a combat leader and seasoned test pilot, he boasts an impressive 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier and An-32. He ascended to the rank of group captain in March 2024.
In 2019, Shukla received a momentous call from ISRO, after which he embarked on a rigorous training scheme at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow.
On February 27, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Shukla as one of the elite astronauts undergoing intensive training for India's maiden human spaceflight mission, “Gaganyaan,” scheduled for launch in 2025.
In August 2024, Shukla was selected as the “prime” astronaut for the upcoming Indo-US mission to the ISS. Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair was selected as the “back up” astronaut.
(With inputs from multiple news reports)
