The motorboat of the Axiom-4 mission, which volition transportation an Indian astronaut, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, to the International Space Station (ISS), has been postponed to June 11 owed to upwind conditions, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.
Advertisement
The ngo was earlier scheduled for June 10.
Axiom had earlier stated that if the motorboat would not instrumentality spot connected June 10, it would beryllium connected June 11.
“Due to upwind conditions, the motorboat of the Axiom-4 ngo for sending Indian Gaganyatri to the International Space Station is postponed from 10th June 2025 to 11th June 2025. The targeted clip of motorboat is 5:30 PM IST connected 11th June 2025,” ISRO Chairman Dr V. Narayanan said.
After 41 years, India volition again people its sanction successful the quality abstraction formation ngo arsenic Shukla volition beryllium the 2nd astronaut to sojourn space. He volition besides beryllium the first-ever Indian to sojourn and behaviour probe connected the International Space Station (ISS).
The ngo unit volition beryllium flying connected SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
Shukla volition service arsenic Mission Pilot connected the Axiom-4 mission, alongside Commander Peggy Whitson (USA, erstwhile NASA astronaut); Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland/ESA); and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu (Hungary/ESA).
The ngo unit completed a afloat rehearsal of launch-day activities up of lift-off connected Tuesday.
The Axiom-4 unit volition motorboat aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the ISS from Launch Complex 39A astatine NASA’s Kennedy Space Center successful Florida. The unit volition dock astatine the abstraction presumption connected June 11. Once docked, the Ax-4 astronauts volition walk astir 14 days aboard the abstraction presumption conducting microgravity research, exertion demonstrations, and outreach events.
Shukla represents India’s abstraction ambitions. His acquisition volition besides beryllium captious for India’s Gaganyaan mission. Adaptation to microgravity, experiments astatine ISS volition beryllium insightful for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that has spent Rs 550 crore, successful collaboration with Axiom Space, to behaviour probe experiments aboard the abstraction station.
The Axiom-4 probe complement includes astir 60 technological studies and activities representing 31 countries, including the US, India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations crossed Europe.
“This volition beryllium the astir probe and science-related activities conducted connected an Axiom abstraction ngo aboard the ISS underscoring the mission’s planetary value and collaborative quality to beforehand microgravity probe successful low-Earth orbit (LEO). The ngo emphasises technological portfolios led by the US, India, Poland, and Hungary. It aims to boost information successful these countries by involving divers stakeholders, showcasing the worth of microgravity research, and fostering planetary collaboration,” Axiom said successful a statement.
The studies volition heighten planetary cognition successful quality research, Earth observation, and life, biological, and worldly sciences, demonstrating the abstraction probe capabilities of the crew’s location nations.
India volition besides behaviour respective experiments, immoderate successful relation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The experiments—developed nether a collaboration betwixt ISRO and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), with enactment from NASA—aim to pioneer abstraction nutrition and self-sustaining beingness enactment systems captious for aboriginal long-duration abstraction travel.
India volition analyse the interaction of microgravity and abstraction radiation connected edible microalgae—a high-potential, nutrient-rich nutrient source. The survey volition absorption connected cardinal maturation parameters and the changes successful transcriptomes, proteomes, and metabolomes of assorted algal taxon successful abstraction compared to Earth conditions.
This is the 4th Axiom Mission to the ISS and the archetypal ngo to the abstraction presumption for India, Hungary and Poland.
Union curate Jitendra Singh said that the abstraction ngo is simply a arrogant planetary acknowledgement of India’s abstraction capabilities and a befitting tribute to India’s abstraction founding fathers Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has been handpicked arsenic 1 of the 4 astronauts for ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission. Commissioned into the IAF combatant helping successful June 2006, helium boasts of an awesome 2,000 hours of formation acquisition crossed assorted aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32. For the spaceflight mission, helium was trained astatine the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre successful Moscow.
English (US) ·