Axiom-4 mission with India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, 3 others embark on 28-hour journey to ISS

After a number of delays, Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4) to the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) was launched on Wednesday (June 25, 2025) from NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle in Florida.

Group Captain Shukla’s who’s the pilot of the Ax-4 mission together with different 4 crew members Commander Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary launched into a 28 hour journey to the ISS on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after launching on the Falcon 9 rocket.

The focused docking time on the orbiting laboratory is roughly 7 a.m. Jap Time (4.30 p.m. IST) on June 26. The Axiom Mission 4 crew will spend as much as 14 days on the ISS.

Group Captain Shukla will develop into the primary Indian astronaut to go to the ISS, and the primary Indian to go to house within the final 40 years.

Rakesh Sharma was the final Indian to go to house when he travelled to house in 1984 onboard the erstwhile Soviet Union’s Soyuz spacecraft.

On Wednesday at 12.01 p.m., the Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Launch Complicated 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Area Centre, and roughly 10 minutes after raise off, the Dragon separated from the second stage of the rocket, and the Dragon nosecone open sequence started.

Submit docking the crew members will spend 14 days onboard the ISS conducting science, outreach, and business actions.

The Ax-4 analysis complement contains round 60 scientific research and actions representing 31 international locations, together with the U.S., India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations throughout Europe.

ISRO has shortlisted seven microgravity analysis experiments proposed by Indian (PIs) from varied nationwide R&D laboratories and educational establishments which Group Captain Shukla could be conducting throughout his 14-day keep on the ISS.

ISRO and NASA may also be collaborating in 5 joint science investigations and two in-orbit STEM (science, know-how, engineering, and arithmetic) demonstrations.

The crew had been in quarantine since Could 25, 2025 because the launch initially focused on Could 29, 2025, nonetheless it was deferred a number of instances on account of varied causes starting from statement in electrical harness in Crew Dragon Module, delay in preparedness of the Falcon 9 car, unfavourable climate, liquid oxygen leak on Falcon 9 and a snag within the Zvezda service module aboard the ISS.