Axiom-4 LAUNCH LIVE: India’s second manned mission to space
ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on their way to the Axiom-4 mission launch; Inset: SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft sit on the pad of Launch Complex 39A ahead of launch | AFP
Led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson of the US and piloted by India’s own ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, the Axiom-4 mission represents the country’s second-ever manned mission to space.
Joining Whitson and Shukla are European Space Agency astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and HUNOR astronaut Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
This mission is the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS).
“It is like a paradigm shift in how we used to think about space,” Shukla said in a video released by SpaceX just hours before the launch.
The Elon Musk-led private space company posted earlier on Wednesday that the weather was 90 per cent favourable for liftoff. “All systems are looking good for Wednesday’s launch of Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission to the International Space Station, and the weather is 90 per cent favourable for liftoff,” it said on X, formerly Twitter.
The targeted launch is at 12.01pm IST on June 25 2025 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
[This is a LIVE story and is being updated in real-time]
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