Axiom-4 launch LIVE: First visuals emerge as Shubhanshu Shukla gears up for mission
As India holds its breath for a monumental cosmic milestone, the first visuals from inside the SpaceX spacecraft are now lighting up television screens. Set to script history, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is seen suited up and ready for much-delayed launch of the Axiom-4 mission, joined by three fellow crew members aboard the spacecraft set to lift off at 12:01 pm today.
The Lucknow-born Shukla, former NASA astronaut Mission Commander Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary boarded the Dragon spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for their sojourn to the International Space Station as part of a commercial mission by Axiom Space.
The SpaceX has announced that the weather is 90 per cent favourable for lift-off.
Shukla will be the first astronaut to travel to the International Space Station, a journey that comes 41 years after Rakesh Sharma’s eight days in orbit as part of the then Soviet Union’s Salyut-7 space station in 1984.
The four astronauts boarded the new Dragon spacecraft, which will be on its maiden voyage, placed on top of the Falcon-9 spacecraft of SpaceX, the transport provider for the mission.
“Dragon’s hatch is closed, all communication and suit checks are complete, the seats are rotated, and the Ax-4 crew is ready for launch,” SpaceX announced in a post on X.
The targeted docking time is approximately 4.30 pm IST on Thursday, June 26, NASA said in a statement.
Once docked, the private astronauts plan to spend about two weeks aboard the orbiting laboratory, conducting a mission comprising science, outreach, and commercial activities.
The launch opportunity comes after NASA and Roscosmos officials discussed the status of the recent repair work in the transfer tunnel at the aft (back) most segment of the orbital laboratory’s Zvezda service module, NASA said. — with PTI
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