Indian Astronaut-Designate Shubhanshu Shukla Likely To Fly To Space Station In May

Indian astronaut-designate Shubhanshu Shukla is likely to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) as soon as May this year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said in an update about Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4).

Group Captain Shukla is the astronaut designate and Mission Pilot.

Shukla, currently serving as an officer in the Indian Air Force, will become the second Indian to travel to space, four decades after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s historic feat in 1984. He will be accompanied by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and mission commander; Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland; and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

His selection comes after ISRO identified him as a key astronaut-designate for India’s upcoming Gaganyaan mission, India’s first human spaceflight program, aiming to send up to three-member crew to a 400 km low Earth orbit for up to three-day mission. ISRO has collaborated with NASA and Axiom Space for this mission.