Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force officer and one of the astronaut-designates for ISRO’s Gaganyaan mission, is all set to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on May 29, 2025. With this mission, he will become the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS and the first Indian to go to space in nearly 40 years.

NASA has confirmed that the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) is scheduled to launch no earlier than 1:03 p.m. EDT on May 29 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA. Group Captain Shukla will serve as the pilot for this mission.

The Ax-4 mission will travel to the ISS aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, with the crew expected to stay at the space station for up to 14 days.

The mission will be led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who will serve as the commander. Joining her are two European astronauts — Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.

India’s space experiments on the mission

The mission will conduct nearly 60 scientific experiments representing 31 countries, including India. Axiom Space, which is managing the mission, said the research will focus on areas such as microgravity, advanced technologies, and space science.

ISRO has selected seven experiments from India for this mission. These experiments were proposed by researchers from national science laboratories and academic institutions across the country.

Tushar Phadnis, Group Head for Microgravity Platforms and Research at ISRO, said,

“On our maiden mission to the ISS we have a set of experiments being investigated by some of the leading academic institutions and research labs from India. The experiments range from searching for the growth of microalgae and cyanobacteria to muscle regeneration experiments, sprouting in space, studying the resilience of tardigrades, seed experiments and human-computer interactions in space.”

When asked why three of the seven experiments are about food, Phadnis said,

“ISRO would like to explore specifically India-centric food. For example, we have a sprouting experiment to sprout green gram, or moong, and fenugreek, which is believed to have medicinal properties.”

 

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