India has taken its cosmic leap. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force pilot, is onboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket that shot off to space from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
This is the same launchpad from which Neil Armstrong took off for the moon on Apollo 11 in 1969.
Group Captain Shukla is the second Indian astronaut travelling to space, four decades after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma made the cosmic journey as part of a Soviet mission in 1984. The Indian Air Force pilot has been in quarantine for over a month to ensure he stays healthy.
Besides Group Captain Shukla, the pilot for the mission, specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, and Commander Peggy Whitson of the US are aboard the spacecraft.
The four-member crew of the Axiom-4 Mission is headed to the International Space Station. During the fortnight-long mission, they will conduct 60 scientific experiments, seven of which have been proposed by Indian researchers. Group Captain Shukla is likely to interact with a VIP from space.
The Axiom-4 launch was delayed multiple times due to weather and technical glitches. June 25 is the sixth date NASA announced.
In a recent media interaction, Group Captain Shukla said, “I carry with me not just instruments and equipment, but the hopes and dreams of a billion hearts.”
Hours before his historic journey, Group Captain Shukla sent a message to his family: “Just wait for me, I’m coming.”
The Axiom-4 crew is scheduled to dock at the International Space Station around 4.30 pm tomorrow, following a roughly 28-hour orbital journey.