India’s Astronaut Dream Takes Flight: Axiom House Appoints Indian-Origin CEO

American area service supplier Axiom House has appointed Indian-origin Tejpaul Bhatia as its new Chief Government Officer (CEO), days earlier than Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is about to journey to the Worldwide House Station as a part of an Axiom-4 mission.

The Houston-based firm has been contracted by the Indian House Analysis Organisation (ISRO) and NASA to fly Group Captain Shukla to the area station subsequent month.

Mr Bhatia, whose dad and mom immigrated from India to New York in 1970, is a former Google govt and a Columbia College graduate.

“The chance to work with India on the Axiom-4 mission and its future area ambitions is a dream come true, spanning a number of generations and continents. It’s the final honour and accountability to signify our ancestors and our future generations all over the world,” he advised NDTV.

In an official assertion, he stated that area exploration has impressed him since childhood. 

“Main Axiom House at this essential inflection level in human spaceflight is the realisation of a lifelong ambition. We’re accelerating our funding in next-generation applied sciences – spacesuits, orbital infrastructure, and microgravity analysis and manufacturing – and we’re actively in search of passionate, visionary engineers, technologists, and entrepreneurs who wish to assist construct humanity’s future in area,” Mr Bhatia, who first labored as Axiom House’s Chief Income Officer for 4 years, stated. 

It was Mr Bhatia who advised that the corporate might assist an Indian to fly to area.

“I’ve virtually made it a problem that if somebody tells me one thing, it is unimaginable, I’ll do it simply to show that it is potential, as a result of the explanation for doing the unimaginable is you set the bar for what is feasible,” he stated. 

“For instance, when it was [about] doing the take care of India, folks stated that is unimaginable, they’re by no means going to fly, and I used to be like, I am going to simply go knock on the door of the embassy. And it is like, you possibly can’t try this. And I wasn’t going to only knock on the door of the embassy as a result of they advised me I could not. I truly simply confirmed up and knocked on the door of the embassy,” he stated.

The joint mission bought a proper point out when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the White Home in 2024.

Mr Bhatia stated he first heard the calling to work within the area business when he was three years outdated and his household visited the Kennedy House Middle.

Within the Nineteen Nineties, he studied laptop science at Columbia College with a concentrate on streaming video. He then labored for ESPN to assist launch their first HD streaming of sports activities on-line, an innovation that may type the muse for modern-day streaming companies. 

He then went on to change into the founder and CEO of three of his personal firms – Clarify Every thing, Chatwala, and Kaptur. 

He was launched to Axiom House for the primary time whereas working for Citi Ventures, Citibank’s enterprise capital arm. He left Citi Ventures for Google and joined Axiom 4 years later.

Beneath Mr Bhatia’s management, Axiom House will speed up supply of the world’s first business, human-rated area station, leveraging its unique authorisation to attach its first module to the Worldwide House Station in 2027.

The Axiom-4 Mission

The crew, which incorporates members from India, the US, Hungary, and Poland, is presently making ready for the flight on the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket and SpaceX Crew Dragon from Kennedy House Middle in Florida.

Axiom-4 Mission Crew | From left: Shubhanshu Shukla, Peggy Whitson (US), , Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary) 
 

Axiom stated the mission will “realise the return” to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, with every nation’s first government-sponsored flight in additional than 40 years. 

Whereas Ax-4 marks these international locations’ second human spaceflight mission in historical past, will probably be the primary time all three nations will execute a mission on board the Worldwide House Station.

On this absolutely business mission, India is paying all the prices for the coaching and the flight to the ISS. The estimated prices are between $60 and $70 million for the one-off single seat on this non-public area mission.

India has chosen Group Captain Shukla as the first astronaut and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair as his backup for the practically fortnight-long mission.

The partnership between Axiom House and NASA offered the astronauts with complete instruction and steering for his or her mission, leveraging the experience and assets of each organisations.