• By Ajeet Kumar
  • Wed, 11 Jun 2025 07:48 AM (IST)
  • Source:JND

Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others, has been put off for the time being as engineers sought more time to repair a leak in SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket. SpaceX announced that it was "standing down" from the Falcon-9 launch of the Axiom-4 mission to allow repairs of the liquid oxygen leak identified during the post-static booster inspections.

"Standing down from tomorrow's Falcon 9 launch of Ax-4 to the @Space_Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair the LOx leak identified during post static fire booster inspections," SpaceX said in a post on X. "Once complete – and pending Range availability – we will share a new launch date," SpaceX said.

The Axiom-4 mission, which marks the return to spaceflight for India, Poland and Hungary, was earlier scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Tuesday at 5:52 PM IST. However, this was postponed due to bad weather. "Due to weather conditions, the launch of Axiom-4 mission for sending Indian Gaganyatri to International Space Station is postponed from 10th June 2025 to 11th June 2025. The targeted time of launch is 5:30 PM IST on 11th June 2025," the ISRO chairman said in a post on X.

ISRO informs about the delay

ISRO, the Indian space agency, took to social media on Wednesday and said Shukla's tour to ISS was postponed due to a leakage detected in the propulsion bay during the test. 

Who is Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla?

Shukla's travel to space marks India's return to human spaceflight 41 years after Rakesh Sharma scripted history by undertaking a journey to space onboard Soviet Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. The Lucknow-born Shukla, who goes by the call sign ‘Shuks’, is part of an ISRO-NASA supported commercial spaceflight by Axiom Space where all the customers are national governments.

A Group Captain in the Indian Air Force, Shukla was selected to be part of India’s astronaut corps in 2019 along with fellow officers Prasanth Balkrishnan Nair, Angad Pratap and Ajit Krishnan for the Gaganyaan mission which is likely to be launched in 2027.

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Shukla did his schooling from City Montessori School before joining the National Defence Academy. He was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in 2006, and has over 2,000 hours of flying time on a wide range of aircraft including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-29, Jaguar, and Dornier-228.

He holds an MTech in Aerospace Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.
Shukla and the three other Gaganyaan astronaut designates underwent extensive training at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre and ISRO’s Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru.

What excatly will Shukla do in space

During the 14-day stay at the ISS, the Ax-4 crew is expected to interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, school students, and space industry leaders, among others. Shukla is set to conduct exclusive food and nutrition-related experiments developed under a collaboration between the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), with support from NASA.

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The experiments aim to pioneer space nutrition and self-sustaining life support systems vital for future long-duration space travel. ISRO has lined up a set of seven experiments for Shukla, who will also participate in five joint studies planned by NASA for its human research program.
It has drawn up plans to focus on India-centric food for carrying out experiments on the ISS, including sprouting methi (fenugreek) and moong (green gram) in microgravity conditions.
Shukla will also expose the seeds to the macrobiotic conditions and bring them back to earth where they will be cultivated into plants not just once but over generations.

Shukla's experience on the Axiom Mission 4 would be very well utilised on the ISRO's Gaganyaan space flight mission which is planned for 2027. ISRO is spending Rs 550 crore on the Axiom-4 mission.

(With inputs from agency)