3 min readNew DelhiJun 25, 2025 01:32 PM IST
First published on: Jun 25, 2025 at 12:15 PM IST
Shubhanshu Shukla Axiom-4 Mission Explained: The Axiom-4 mission carrying India’s Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station is set to launch today. Indian Air Force officer Shubhanshu Shukla is the pilot of the mission.
Shukla will become only the second Indian to travel to space, after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in April 1984. Shukla counts Rakesh Sharma among his inspirations and believes he is “extremely lucky to have gotten the opportunities to fly all my life, which was a dream job for me.”
Here’s what Shukla hopes to achieve from the Axiom mission, and what his crewmates, Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, and Tibor Kapu have said about him.
Who is Shubhanshu Shukla?
Born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, on October 10, 1985, Group Captain Shukla is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Pune. He was commissioned into the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighter wing in June 2006, and became Group Captain in March 2024. Shukla has 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32.
After receiving a call from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2019, Shukla underwent rigorous training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow, Russia.
In February 2024, he was picked as the prime astronaut for ISRO’s maiden human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, scheduled for 2026.
What Shubhanshu Shukla has said about Axiom mission
“The first Indian astronaut, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, travelled to space in 1984. I grew up reading about him in textbooks and listening to his stories from space. I was deeply, deeply impressed by him,” Shukla says in a video on the Axiom website.
Shukla also says that he learnt he would be going on the Axiom mission a week before arriving at the mission centre. “It has been an amazing journey. These are moments that really tell you that you are getting to be a part of something that is much larger than yourself,” he says.
About what he hopes to do through the mission, Shukla says, “It is my sincere endeavor through my mission to inspire an entire generation back home in the country. I want to use this opportunity to ignite curiosity among kids. Even if this story, my story, is able to change one life, it would be a huge success for me.”
What his crewmates have said about him
Tibor Kapu, from Hungary, says in the video, “Shux (nickname for Shubhanshu) has wisdom. The knowledge that he possesses, he could be 130 years old.”
Peggy Wislon, who has served as NASA’s Chief Astronaut, says, “For me, having him as my pilot in the Dragon capsule is great. He already has that operational savvy. You know, he’s just wicked smart when it comes to spacecraft technologies.”
Polish astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski says, “He is very focused and he will basically go 1234 in, in a record time. I don’t even know how he gets there so fast.”
Shubhanshu Shukla Axiom-4 Mission: SpaceX Falcon 9 crew member Shubhanshu Shukla waves before departing to pad 39A for a launch to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Tuesday, June 24. (AP/PTI) 
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