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The first Indian astronaut to visit the International Space Station is due to blast off as part of an effort by the world’s most populous nation to catch up with the US, Russia and China in human space flight missions.
Shubhanshu Shukla, a 39-year-old air force fighter pilot, is one of a four-person mission launching on Tuesday from the US with the private company Axiom Space, which is using a SpaceX capsule.
He will be the first Indian astronaut to reach orbit in more than four decades after Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 flight aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.
“I truly believe that even though, as an individual, I am travelling to space, this is the journey of 1.4 billion people,” Shukla was quoted as saying by the Hindu newspaper this year. Shukla said he hoped to “ignite the curiosity of an entire generation in my country”.
India’s department of space has called the trip a “defining chapter” in its ambitious space exploration programme. The International Space Station mission (ISS) “stands as a symbol of a confident, forward-looking nation ready to reclaim its place in the global space race”, the agency said before the launch. “His journey is more than just a flight – it’s a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration.”
New Delhi has paid more than $60m for the mission, according to Indian media reports.
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, has announced plans to send a person to the moon by 2040. The Indian Space Research Organisation, meanwhile, is planning to launch its own human spaceflight mission, called Gaganyaan, or “sky craft” in Hindi, in 2027. Shukla is a contender to be part of that trip.
Shukla trained at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Russia in 2020, before undertaking further training at the ISRO’s centre in Bengaluru.
He has said the journey aboard the Axiom Mission 4, and the expected 14 days on the ISS, will provide “invaluable” lessons to bring back home.
Shukla will be led by the mission commander, Peggy Whitson, a former Nasa astronaut and an Axiom employee, and joined by the European Space Agency astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, of Hungary.
They will conduct 60 scientific studies, including microgravity research, earth observation, and life, biological and material sciences experiments.
India’s space programme has grown considerably in size and momentum in the last decade, matching the achievements of established powers at a much cheaper price.
In August 2023, it became the fourth nation to land an unmanned craft on the moon after Russia, the US and China.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
