New Delhi:
Eight months of training for India’s ‘gaganyatri’, or astronauts, who may travel to the International Space Station, or ISS, as early as end-May, has come to end. The crew is now preparing for the flight on the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket and SpaceX Crew Dragon.
Houston-based private space company Axiom Space Inc. has said the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew completed NASA training, marking a significant milestone as they prepare for their journey to the ISS. The four-person crew’s completion of the NASA training program stands as a testament to their hard work and the collaborative spirit that drives human space exploration.
As part of the completion ritual, the crew of four cut a cake decorated with the flight patch, and also placed the flight patch at a designated spot in the long heritage of human space flights that NASA has undertaken.
India has chosen Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as the primary astronaut and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair as his back-up on this nearly fortnight-long mission.
India is paying all the costs for this training and the flight to ISS. The estimated costs are between $60 and $70 million for this one-off single seat on this private space mission. Since this mission is fully commercial and NASA is likely to earn a profit, it is unlikely to be hit by the mercurial reciprocal tariff war that US President Donald Trump has unleased.
“The Ax-4 crew now gears up for final preparations before their slated launch in May, standing ready to embrace the discoveries that await them in low-Earth orbit,” Axiom Space said.
Group Captain Shukla, the designated pilot, has actively trained in fighting fires, participated in handling emergencies, and has also been trained to provide first aid to crewmates in case of an injury. Giving mouth-to-mouth to providing resuscitation was integral to the training. The crew also trained in Europe in diverse activities, including adjusting to the micro-gravity environment.
The four-member crew was also given rigorous training in large water pools, since the final splashdown after completion of mission will take place, most likely, in the Pacific Ocean and the crew is trained to handle all emergencies if things go off during the risky re-entry phase.
The crew has also been trained on how to use digital cameras to take photos at the orbital laboratory. One of Group Captain Shukla’s personal goals is to prepare a daily photo documentation of his activities in space.
According to Axiom Space, since August 2024, the Ax-4 crew has trained at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, focusing on space station operations. Their preparation included a blend of classroom instruction, simulator exercises, and full-team scenarios within realistic mockups of space station modules. This hands-on training covered everything from payload operations to safety protocols, ensuring the crew is prepared to live and work in the microgravity environment of the station and meet their mission objectives.
At the space laboratory, Group Captain Shukla, a serving officer in the Indian Air Force, will undertake seven specially designed but rather simple and seemingly elementary experiments that the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has chosen to fly to the ISS.
The partnership between Axiom Space and NASA provided the astronauts with comprehensive instruction and guidance for their mission, leveraging the expertise and resources of both organizations.
Upon the successful completion of NASA training, the Ax-4 crew celebrated alongside NASA and Axiom Space mission operations teams during the traditional patch hanging ceremony.
The Indian ‘gaganyatris’ have also been trained in Russia and India before the NASA training had kicked in August 2024.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will become the second Indian to travel to space, four decades after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma’s historic feat in 1984. Incidentally Shukla was not even born when Sharma undertook the historic first flight in 1984 to Russian space station.
His selection comes through the Indian Space Research Organization, which identified him as a key astronaut for India’s upcoming Gaganyaan mission. ISRO has collaborated with NASA and Axiom Space for this mission.
As part of Ax-4, he will serve as the mission’s pilot alongside three other astronauts: Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and mission commander, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
ISRO asserts that “the experiences gained during this mission will be beneficial for the Indian Human Space Program and it will also strengthen human space flight cooperation between ISRO and NASA”.
