Axiom-4 mission, with India's Shux, expected by May or early June

BENGALURU: The Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4), which will take India’s Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station (ISS), could launch onboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in May or early June.

Both Nasa and Axiom Space, who earlier maintained that the mission was expected in the spring of 2025, have said that the launch could happen “no earlier than” May.

Axiom, posted late Tuesday: “...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 (no earlier than) May 2025. We take pride in being the trusted provider for multiple countries to experience Space and conduct groundbreaking research for Earth.”

While a Nasa Space Operations update, read: “Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), the fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS, is targeted to launch no earlier than May 2025 from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.”

Both statements indicate that the mission cannot happen before May and sources indicated that while the target is for May, the possibility of the mission being scheduled for early June has been not been fully ruled out yet.

Nasa said the Ax-4 crew will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the space station and spend up to 14 days at the orbiting laboratory.

Shukla, who is among the four astronaut-designates part of India’s Gaganyaan mission, became part of Ax-4 as part of a joint Isro-Nasa endeavour which was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his official visit to the US in 2023.

Aside from Shukla, who is the designated pilot for the mission, Ax-4 has mission commander Peggy Whitson, Polish astronaut from European Space Agency (ESA) Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Hungary’s Tibor Kapu.

As reported by TOI earlier, the Ax-4 crew has entered the last leg of its training for the mission while Axiom prepares for launch with SpaceX. Shukla will be India’s first astronaut to go to space in 41 years after Wing Commander (retd) Rakesh Sharma went on a Soviet mission in 1984. Shukla will also earn the distinction of being the first Indian astronaut ever to go to the ISS.

While Shukla is designated to be part of the Ax-4 mission, India has also sent Group Captain Prashanth Nair, another astronaut-designate part of Gaganyaaan, as Shukla’s back-up for the mission.