- By Ajeet Kumar
- Tue, 27 May 2025 05:32 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will take Indian food like moong dal halwa, Indian rice, and mango nectar with him when he travels to the International Space Station (ISS) next month. He will be the first Indian to visit the ISS. DK Singh from ISRO's Human Space Flight Centre in Bengaluru said that Shukla will enjoy Indian meals while in space. In the past, Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams also took Indian food with her, including fish curry and samosas.
Shukla is currently in pre-launch quarantine with his three international crewmates to prepare for the Axiom Mission-4 (Ax-4), which is set to launch on June 8 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
He will serve as the pilot of the mission. The crew will be led by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and now Director of Human Spaceflight at Axiom Space. Other team members include Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary—both going to space for the first time.
Before entering quarantine, Axiom Space held a send-off ceremony for the crew. Shukla said, "I am sure this mission will be a success."
Why astronauts go into quarantine
Astronauts quarantine before launch to make sure they’re healthy and don’t carry any infections to space. This is important because the ISS is a closed space, and any illness could affect both the new and current crew.Also, astronauts' immune systems get weaker in space, so it's easier for them to get sick.
Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, piloted by Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla with three other crew members, has been delayed and will now be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 8 at 6:41 pm IST. The mission was earlier scheduled for launch on May 29.
The announcement was made by Axiom Space, a US-based commercial human spaceflight firm, and NASA. "After reviewing @Space_Station flight schedule, NASA and its partners are shifting launch opportunities for several upcoming missions. The new targeted no-earlier-than-launch opportunities, pending operational readiness, are: Axiom Mission 4: 9:11 am EDT, Sunday, June 8," NASA said in a post on X.
Shukla's travel to space, onboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, comes four decades after Rakesh Sharma's iconic spaceflight onboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Besides Shukla, the Ax-4 crew includes members from Poland and Hungary, marking each nation's first mission to the International Space Station in history and the second government-sponsored human spaceflight mission in over 40 years.
Shukla space mission will encourage microgravity
Shukla will conduct seven experiments in space that are aimed at encouraging microgravity research in India which hopes to build its own space station by 2035 and send astronauts to the moon by 2047.ISRO has drawn up plans to focus on India-centric food to carry out experiments on the ISS, including sprouting methi (Fenugreek) and moong (green gram) in microgravity conditions.