India is set to achieve a significant milestone in its space journey, with the Centre announcing that Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the country's astronaut-designate, will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) next month.
Captain Shukla, 40, has spent the past eight months training with NASA and Axiom Space, a private space company. He will be part of a private commercial mission for which India has invested over $60 million. The mission will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the four-member crew housed in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. Liftoff is scheduled from NASA바카라™s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
ISRO selected Shukla바카라”the youngest among its astronaut designates바카라”for this mission, citing his long career potential in the space programme.
The commander of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission will be former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who now works for Axiom Space. The other two crew members are Slawosz Uznanski from Poland, who is a European Space Agency astronaut and will be a mission specialist, and Hungary's Tibor Kapu, who will also have the same role. Group Captain Shukla will be the mission's pilot.
