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 NASA라이브 바카라 Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
ISRO selected Shukla—the youngest among its astronaut designates—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.
