NEW DELHI (dpa-AFX) - Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot to the fourth private astronaut mission from Axiom Space to the International Space Station.
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX announced Tuesday that the launch of Axiom Mission 4 has been postponed to June 10, targeting no earlier than 8:22 a.m. ET.
The change in date allows teams to account for predicted inclement weather during the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft transport in addition to completing final processing of the spacecraft ahead of launch, NASA said in a press release.
An Indian Air Force test pilot and astronaut, Shubhanshu Shukla is one of the four astronaut designates who will fly to space as part of the Axiom Mission 4, a collaboration between NASA, SpaceX, and the Indian Space Research Organisation, which aims to strengthen international spaceflight cooperation.
If successful, Shukla will become the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS and the second Indian in orbit, after Rakesh Sharma, as part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Program.
Also known as Gaganyaan program, it aims to develop the technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low Earth orbit. Three uncrewed flights, named Gaganyaan-1, Gaganyaan-2 and Gaganyaan-3 are scheduled to launch in 2025, followed by crewed flight in 2026 on an HLVM3 rocket.
Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, will join a crew led by commander Peggy Whitson and mission specialists.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission. The two mission specialists are European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The crew will lift off aboard Dragon on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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