June 25, 2025 - Finally, Axiom-4 mission lifts off taking India’s Shubhanshu Shukla into space - the second gaganyatri from India to be doing so after a gap of more than 40 years.The first Indian to have gone into space was Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984

The take-off was conducted successfully today, June 25, at 12:01 pm IST from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

Apart from with Indian astronaut Shukla, who is the mission’s pilot, the journey to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the SpaceX Dragon has three other crew members - Peggy Whitson (commander and former NASA astronaut), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland (ESA) and Tibor Kapu from Hungary (HUNOR).

This Axion-4 mission is also historic for it is the first time an Indian has gone to the ISS in collaboration with NASA and SpaceX.

The SpaceX Faclon 9 spacecraft with the Crew Dragon capsule lifted off after several delyas earlier, carrying the 39-year-old Indian fighter pilot who was selected by ISRO for this historic mission. The journey is expected to be around 28 hours and, if all goes as per schedule, then the Axiom-4 crew will reach the ISS by tomorrow (June 24) morning and join the orbiting space laboratory’s seven current occupants. Currently, the ISS has three cosmonauts from Russia, three astronauts from the US and one from Japan.

Shukla and his Axiom-4 crew will spend approximately two weeks aboard the ISS conducting scientific research, STEM outreach programmes and commercial activities.