Indian pilot set for a historic space trip on axiom-4

The Axiom Mission 4 (AX-4), which is expected to take off from NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida next week, will be piloted by an Indian while it hovers to the International Space Station (ISS).

The captain of the Indian Air Force Shubhanshu Shukla group is part of the multi-country crew of four AX-4 members which will spend two weeks at the ISS.

The flight, scheduled for June 10 at 08:22 HAE (12: 22GMT; 17: 52IST), aroused enormous interest in India because the group captain Shukla will only be the second Indian to go to space and the first to visit the ISS.

The trip comes 41 years after the Cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to go to the space aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984. He spent almost eight days there.

AX -4 is led by the former NASA Peggy Whitson astronaut – a spatial veteran who was commander of the ISS, spent hundreds of days in space and made 10 space walks.

The team also includes Slawosz Uznanski -Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary – just like the Indian astronaut, they will also bring their country in space after more than four decades.

Experts say that the role of the pilot is essential, because it would serve as a second commander of the mission commander, helping operations of spaceships during the launch, mooring, defusing and return to earth.

The astronauts, who have been in quarantine since May 25 to prepare for the trip, addressed a press conference on Tuesday evening when they showed Joy – a small white toy joy which, according to them, would be “the fifth crew member” on AX -4.

“We are good for the launch, we have finished all the training and the team was well linked,” said Commander Whitson.

Describing the last year as “nothing less than the transformer” for him, the captain of the Shukla group said that he had no words to describe his excitement.

“It was an incredible trip so far, but the best is to come,” he said.

“While I go to space, I carry not only instruments and equipment, I have hopes and dreams of a billion hearts.

“I ask all the Indians to pray for the success of our mission,” he added.

The 39 -year -old man was one of the four Indian Air Force officers preselected Last year, to travel on the very first human space flight in the country, scheduled for 2027.

The Gaganyaan mission aims to send three astronauts to a 400 km orbit and bring them back after three days. India has also announced ambitious plans to create a space station by 2035 and send an astronaut to the moon by 2040.

The India Space Agency isro has carried out a number of tests to prepare for Gaganyaan. In December, he plans to send a woman robot humanoid in space as part of the tests.

Thus, officials say that the weekend mission is a “unique exciting opportunity” for the ISRO and has aroused a lot of interest in India.

The trip to ISS aboard the AX -4 – a commercial flight operated by the private company based in Houston Axiom Space – is an effort of collaboration between NASA, the ISRO and the European Space Agency (ESA).

Sunday flight will be launched using the Dragon Spacex Crew capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket.

The ISRO, which paid 5 billion rupees ($ 59 million; 43 million pounds sterling) to guarantee a seat for the captain of the Shukla group and his training, says that the experience he will acquire from his trip to ISS will enormously help India.

“The advantage that we draw from this mission is phenomenal in terms of training, exposure to installations and the experience of the joint conduct of experience in space,” recently declared the president of the ISRO, v Narayanan.

SUDEESH BALAN, ISRO project director, said that the captain of the Shukla group had trained since August from last year.

“He has undergone rigorous training, including physical and psychological assessments, to prepare for travel.”

Born October 10, 1985 in the city in the north of Lucknow, the captain of the Shukla group joined the Indian Air Force as a fighter pilot in 2006.

According to Axiom Space, it has more than 2,000 hours of experience in flight and has piloted Migs, Sukhois, Dorniers, Jaguars and Hawks.

His sister Shuchi Mishra, however, told the BBC that his entry into the Air Force was “accidental”.

“When he was 17 years old and in high school, his friend had a form to apply to the Academy of National Defense. But this friend was slightly excessive, so he was not qualified. Not wanting to waste the form, Shubhanshu filled him,” said Mishra.

“He was selected – and never looked back.”

Ms. Mishra says that their family “is delighted because one of ours was chosen on 1.4 billion people from India” for this mission.

“We all feel so privileged and proud that he is part of our family and that we have been part of his trip.”

Her brother, she says, undertakes this trip for his country – for the next generation.

“He always tells people to dream big, to do something for the nation. We hope that his journey will inspire the next generation.”

In addition to piloting the mission, the Indian astronaut will have a busy schedule during his stay on the ISS.

Given the enormous interest in theft, ISRO said they were organizing events to interact with Indian students and answered their questions while floating in space.

“We think that will motivate our young minds to become passionate about space technology,” said Balan.

But most of the time, the crew of four members will conduct 60 scientific experiences, seven from which come from India.

The former scientist of NASA, Mila Mitra, says that ISRO’s experiences will help improve our understanding of space and its effects on biology and micro-gravity.

One of the main experiences, she explains, will study the impact of the space flight on six varieties of culture seeds.

“This project aims to help understand how cultures can be cultivated in space for future exploration missions. After the mission, the seeds will be cultivated for several generations and the plants showing that the preferred features will be selected for genetic analyzes.”

Another isro experience is to cultivate three microalgae strains that could be used as food, fuel or even in life support systems, which will help identify the most suitable for microgravity growth, she says.

The ISRO projects would also investigate how Tardigrades – Micro -Animals on Earth which can survive extreme environments – would be done in space.

“The project will examine the Renaissance of the late Dormant, will count the number of eggs laid and hatched during a mission and compare the populations of spatial control over the population control populations,” said Mitra.

Other experiments aim to identify how muscle loss occurs in space and how it can be treated; and the physical and cognitive impact of the use of computer screens in microgravity.

“Research will study how to fix the look and rapid eye movements are affected by being in space, and how it can affect the stress and well-being of an astronaut. The results could influence the design and interaction of the future space computer,” she said.

Follow BBC News India on Instagram,, YouTube, X And Facebook.