ISRO-NASA mission to ISS: 40 years after Rakesh Sharma, Subhanshu Shukla to be 2nd Indian to travel to space

Only one Indian has ever been in space till now – Rakesh Sharma – who was wing commander when he flew on a Soviet spacecraft in 1984.

Shukla and Nair are among the four Indian air force officers selected for India’s first manned space mission, Gaganyaan, that is now tentatively scheduled for next year. The two will undergo further mission-specific training for the next eight weeks, an ISRO official said.

All four selected officers have already undergone rigorous training for the Gaganyaan mission.

Axiom-4 is the fourth mission by private space company Axiom Space in collaboration with NASA. The spacecraft would be launched by a SpaceX rocket. Apart from Shukla, three other astronauts — one each from Poland, Hungary and the United States — will travel to the International Space Station. India’s partnership in this mission was a result of an agreement between New Delhi and Washington during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the United States last year.

The Axiom-4 spacecraft would remain docked with the ISS for 14 days. Besides the astronauts, it will carry cargo, and supplies, for the ISS.

The exact date of the launch is not yet decided. NASA, on its website, says the mission was scheduled not earlier than October 2024. However, Poland’s space agency POLSA, in a separate announcement today, said the mission was expected only next year. Shukla, 39, a fighter pilot who hails from Lucknow in UP,  was commissioned in the IAF in 2006 and has over 2,000 hours of flying experience. He has flown a variety of IAF fighter jets including Sukhoi-30 MKIs, MiG-21s, MiG-29s, Jaguars, Hawks, Dorniers, and the AN-32 aircraft.  Nair is a recipient of the sword of honour at the Air Force  Academy and was commissioned in the IAF in 1998. He is a category A flying instructor and a test Pilot with over 3000 hours of flying experience. He is an alumnus of the United States Staff College and has commanded Sukhoi-30 squadron.

India’s Gaganyaan mission is dependent on experience gained from the ISS mission by the Indian astronauts.

“This particular activity (Indo US collaboration on a space mission) is something that the US wants and India also finds it beneficial for the Indian space programme because once an Indian prepares to go to the ISS they will undergo a training in the US and they are going to come back and discuss how the training and this will help design our Gaganyaan better,” ISRO chairman Somanath said in 2023.