Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force (IAF) officer recently selected as the 'Prime' astronaut for the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Gaganyaan mission, has now been named the pilot for Axiom Mission 4, scheduled for Spring 2025.
The Ax-4 mission will be led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Axiom Space's Director of Human Spaceflight.
Shukla will be joined by mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. This mission marks a significant milestone as it will be the first government-sponsored human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary in over 40 years.
Shubhanshu Shukla will become India's second astronaut in space since 1984. His journey began in June 2006 when he was commissioned into the IAF's fighter wing.
As a seasoned combat leader and test pilot, Shukla has accumulated over 2,000 flight hours across various aircraft types, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32.
His rise to the rank of Group Captain in March 2024 reflects his extraordinary contributions to the IAF. In 2019, Shukla received a transformative call from ISRO and embarked on intense training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow, preparing him for future space missions.
On February 27, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially announced Shukla as one of the astronauts undergoing intensive training for India's first-ever human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, scheduled for 2025.
By August 2024, Shukla had been selected as the 'Prime' astronaut for the upcoming Indo-US mission to the International Space Station (ISS), with Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair as his backup astronaut.
The Gaganyaan mission aims to demonstrate India's human spaceflight capabilities, with a crew of three astronauts orbiting at 400 km for three days before safely returning to Earth, landing in Indian sea waters.
India’s space sector has seen remarkable advancements in recent years, especially with successful missions like Chandrayaan-3’s lunar landing and the Aditya L1 Solar Mission. ISRO’s Gaganyaan program has also been making significant progress, as has the agency’s work on reusable launch vehicles, expanding satellite portfolios, and a commitment to building an Indian space station by 2035.
On January 29, 2024, ISRO successfully launched the GSLV-F15 carrying the NVS-02 satellite, marking the 100th launch from India’s spaceport at Sriharikota.