ORLANDO (FLORIDA): India’s Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and other crew members of the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4) set for launch from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) here on June 10, will dock with the International Space Station (ISS), several hours later on June 11. “The crew will dock to the space station on June 11 at approximately 12.30pm Eastern Time,” as per Axiom Space. The launch, which was earlier scheduled on June 8, was pushed to June 10.“…This shift allows Nasa, SpaceX and Axiom teams to account for predicted inclement weather during the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft transport in addition to completing final processing of the spacecraft ahead of launch,” Nasa said about the June 10 launch.Peggy Whitson, former Nasa astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the mission, while Isro astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.Going by the timelines both Nasa and Axiom have publicly committed to, the ongoing spat between SpaceX founder Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump — a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Ax-4 crew aboard a SpaceX Dragon — is unlikely to have any impact on this particular mission.The Ax-4 mission will mark SpaceX’s 53rd Dragon mission, 15th human spaceflight mission to the ISS, and 48th trip to the station including both crew and cargo missions.Shukla, who is among the four astronaut-designates part of India’s Gaganyaan programme, 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.India has so far spent at least Rs 548 crore on the mission. Other than launch, the expenditure also includes training of both Shukla and his back-up Group Captain Prashanth Nair, another Gaganyaan astronaut-designate.Once he is onboard the ISS, Shukla will conduct seven experiments developed by Indian academic institutions, and five additional experiments with Nasa, as has been confirmed by Dana Weigel, manager, ISS Programme, Nasa.Reacting to this, Sudeesh Balan, project director, Isro, had said earlier: “The seven experiments we had announced earlier are mostly biological and are those proposed by Indian scientists. These will be conducted by Shukla. Aside from these, there will be five experiments in partnership with Nasa on human research programmes. Shukla will be participating in them.”The SpaceX Dragon to be used for Ax-4 will be a “brand-new spacecraft, SpaceX’s director of Dragon mission management, Sarah Walker has confirmed, adding that it will receive a nickname from the crew. Ax-4 commander Whitson said last week that the new name will be announced soon
