Axiom-4 mission, with Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shulka on board, lifts off from US

Mangalore Today News Network

Chennai, June 25, 2025: After several delays, the much-awaited Axiom 04 mission taking India’s Shubhanshu Shulka and three other astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) took off on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, US.

The fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS was launched at 12.01 pm IST aboard a new Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX owned by billionaire Elon Musk through its Falcon 9 rocket. Besides Shukla, the mission will take Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary to the ISS along with Peggy Whitson, a former Nasa astronaut and now Director of Human Spaceflight at Axiom Space.

 

 

Ax-4 Mission | Launch https://t.co/qrESbnfRXe

— Axiom Space (@Axiom_Space) June 25, 2025

“This is the first flight for the Dragon spacecraft supporting this mission. This will be the second flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched a Starlink mission. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will land on Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida,” SpaceX said in a statement.

During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct more than 60 scientific experiments and demonstrations focused on human research, Earth observation, and life, biological, and material sciences.

The mission, which will take the second Indian astronaut to the space after Rakesh Sharma in 1984 as part of Soviet Interkosmos programme, was postponed six times since its original launch scheduled for June 8. He will be the first Indian to reach the ISS.

Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) is a planned private spaceflight to the ISS carrying astronauts from India, Hungary, and Poland. The flight is operated by Axiom Space in partnership with SpaceX and NASA.

ISRO has been maintaining that safety and mission integrity remains the top priorities and that it was working closely with Axiom Space, NASA, and SpaceX as they responsibly address the ISS Zvezda module observation causing the Ax‑4 delay.

Shulka, who was commissioned into the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter wing in June 2006, became Group Captain in March 2024 with 2,000 hours of flight experience across aircraft.

Whitson has completed three long-duration missions and spent a total of 665 days in space, more than any other American or woman astronaut globally.