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LUCKNOW: The 39-year-old Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the fighter pilot of Indian Airforce (IAF) and ISRO’s astronaut, has been official named pilot for Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), a private spaceflight for International Space Station (ISS), scheduled for post spring of the current calendar year.
NASA and its international partners have approved the crew of the Ax-4 crew, who will be launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, and travel to the space station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Once docked, the private astronauts plan to spend up to 14 days aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting a mission consisting of science, outreach, and commercial activities.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO’s 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.
According to Axiom Space, Group Captain Shukla, a distinguished pilot in the IAF, has been handpicked as one of the four astronauts for the ISRO’s historic Gaganyaan mission—the nation’s inaugural human space flight endeavor.
In a statement, Axiom Space said, “Shukla born on October 10, 1985, in Lucknow, Shukla possesses fluency in both English and his native Hindi. His journey began when he was commissioned into the IAF fighter wing in June 2006. As a combat leader and seasoned test pilot, he boasts an impressive 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32. His ascent to the rank of group captain in March 2024 reflects his exceptional contributions.”
In 2019, Shukla received a momentous call from ISRO.
He embarked on rigorous training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow, Russia—a year-long preparation that would shape his destiny. On February 27, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled Shukla as one of the elite astronauts undergoing intensive training for India’s maiden human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, scheduled for launch in 2025.
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