India set to send Shubhanshu Shukla to space next month, a first in 40 years
Group Captain Shukla’s journey is more than just a flight – it’s a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration, said Union Minister Jitendra Singh
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is set to travel to the International Space Station next month as part of an Axiom-4 mission, four decades after Rakesh Sharma’s iconic spaceflight onboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh stated this after reviewing the work of the Department of Space and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in New Delhi on Friday. “Group Captain Shukla’s journey is more than just a flight – it’s a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration,” he said.
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Milestone for India
Singh said Group Captain Shukla's mission, scheduled for May, marks a milestone in India's expanding international space collaborations.
A decorated test pilot with the Indian Air Force, Group Captain Shukla was shortlisted under ISRO’s Human Spaceflight Program and is among the top contenders for the Gaganyaan mission.
His journey aboard the Axiom-4 mission is expected to provide critical hands-on experience in spaceflight operations, launch protocols, microgravity adaptation, and emergency preparedness – all essential for India's crewed space ambitions, an official statement said.
“What sets Shukla's mission apart is its strategic importance. Unlike the symbolic undertones of India's first human spaceflight, this time the focus is on operational readiness and global integration,” it said.
‘Water bears’ in space
Meanwhile, ISRO is preparing to be part of a unique experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as Shukla gears up to fly on the Axiom-4 mission. The experiment will feature tardigrades, also known as “water bears".
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Tardigrades, nicknamed “water bears” or “moss piglets”, are tiny, eight-legged micro-animals renowned for their almost indestructible biology. Measuring barely 0.3 mm to 0.5 mm in length, they require a microscope to be seen. Tardigrades have eight legs with tiny claws, segmented bodies, and a tough cuticle, characterised by their slow and lumbering movements.
The Voyager Tardigrades experiment is one of seven Indian scientific studies scheduled for the ISS. It will investigate the revival, survival, and reproduction of tardigrades sent to the ISS.
According to a brief by Axiom Space, the experiment will study tardigrade revival, egg-laying and hatching in space, and compare gene expression patterns between space-flown and ground-control populations.
New space missions
Earlier, ISRO chairman V Narayanan made a presentation on various upcoming space missions.
ISRO is set to launch the NISAR satellite – developed jointly with NASA – in June on board the GSLV-Mark 2 rocket. In July, the space agency will put in orbit BlueBird Block-2 satellites of US-based AST SpaceMobile Inc. using the heavy-lift LVM-3 rocket.
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ISRO also plans to launch the PSLV-C61 mission carrying the EOS-09 satellite, which is equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar, capable of capturing high-resolution images of Earth's surface under all weather conditions, day or night.
Another significant milestone will be the Test Vehicle-D2 (TV-D2) mission, designed to simulate an abort scenario and demonstrate the Gaganyaan Crew Escape System. The mission includes sea recovery operations for the Crew Module, mimicking procedures planned for India's first human spaceflight, he said.
(With agency inputs)