National Times Bureau: The highly anticipated Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission, set to make history with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla becoming the first Indian to live and work aboard the International Space Station (ISS), has been postponed to June 11 at 5:30 PM IST due to adverse weather conditions. The launch, originally slated for June 10 and earlier delayed from June 8, will now proceed from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.
This delay, though brief, underscores the mission’s strict safety protocols. ISRO confirmed the new schedule while emphasizing that crew welfare and optimal launch parameters remain paramount.
Shukla, a highly trained Indian Air Force officer with more than 2,000 hours of flight experience, will be the second Indian in space after Rakesh Sharma, and the first to board the ISS. The Ax-4 mission includes astronauts Peggy Whitson (USA), Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary), and is expected to last around 14 days.
The mission will involve over 60 scientific experiments from 31 nations, including joint ISRO-NASA studies on microgravity’s effects on human health and the performance of self-sustaining life-support systems—key to India’s future space ambitions such as the Gaganyaan mission.
Speaking ahead of the mission, Shukla expressed deep pride in representing the aspirations of over a billion Indians on a platform as prestigious as the ISS. His journey signals a new era in India’s space diplomacy and scientific collaboration.
