The Second Indian in Space

Last February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi named Subhanshu Shukla among the four Indians chosen for Gaganyaan, ISRO's historic manned space mission slated for sometime next year. As it turns out, Shukla will not have to wait that long. On May 29, Axiom-4, a commer­cial mission, will go to the International Space Station and Shukla will be piloting it on behalf of ISRO.

It is a milestone because the last time an Indian went to space was 41 years ago when Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma was part of a Soviet Union mission. Like Sharma, Shukla too is an Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot. A group captain, he has more than 2,000 flying hours under his belt.

Shukla has been striving for this moment for a long time. As far back as 2019, ISRO

selected him to be an astronaut and sent him to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Moscow for training. He is not alone. Even the back-up pilot for the Axiom-4 mission is an Indian, Prasanth Nair, also an IAF group captain. In fact, Shukla will be the first Indian to go to the International Space Station. Sunita Williams has been there but she is of Indian-origin and an American citizen.

The Axiom-4 mission is being done by the US company, Axiom Space, and the vessel carrying them is a Crew Dragon spacecraft of Space X. It will take off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission will give Shukla and ISRO experience in manned space flight, the ulti­mate goal being Gaganyaan. In Axiom-4, two other countries have similar ambitions. Their website notes, "The Ax-4 mission will 'realize the return' to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, with each nation's first government-sponsored flight in more than 40 years."

Shukla will be at the ISS for up to two weeks. Through the mission, ISRO will also be conducting experiments there. Its website says, "ISRO has short­listed seven microgravity research experiments proposed by Indian Principal Investigators (PIs) from various national R&D laboratories/ academic institutions for implementation on International Space Station (ISS) during the upcoming Axiom-4 mission with ISRO's Gaganyatri.