
India's Astronaut Dream Takes Flight: Axiom Space Appoints Indian-Origin CEO
Tejpaul Bhatia, whose parents immigrated from India to New York in 1970, is a former Google executive.
American space service provider Axiom Space has appointed Indian-origin Tejpaul Bhatia as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), days before Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is set to travel to the International Space Station as part of an Axiom-4 mission.
The Houston-based company has been contracted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and NASA to fly Group Captain Shukla to the space station next month.
Advertisement - Scroll to continue
Mr Bhatia, whose parents immigrated from India to New York in 1970, is a former Google executive and a Columbia University graduate.
"The opportunity to work with India on the Axiom-4 mission and its future space ambitions is a dream come true, spanning multiple generations and continents. It is the ultimate honour and responsibility to represent our ancestors and our future generations around the world," he told NDTV.
In an official statement, he said that space exploration has inspired him since childhood.
"Leading Axiom Space at this critical inflection point in human spaceflight is the realisation of a lifelong ambition. We are accelerating our investment in next-generation technologies - spacesuits, orbital infrastructure, and microgravity research and manufacturing - and we're actively seeking passionate, visionary engineers, technologists, and entrepreneurs who want to help build humanity's future in space," Mr Bhatia, who first worked as Axiom Space's Chief Revenue Officer for four years, said.
It was Mr Bhatia who suggested that the company could help an Indian to fly to space.
"I have almost made it a challenge that if someone tells me something, it's impossible, I will do it just to prove that it's possible, because the reason for doing the impossible is you set the bar for what is possible," he said.
"For example, when it was [about] doing the deal with India, people said that's impossible, they're never going to fly, and I was like, I'll just go knock on the door of the embassy. And it's like, you can't do that. And I wasn't going to just knock on the door of the embassy because they told me I couldn't. I actually just showed up and knocked on the door of the embassy," he said.
The joint mission got a formal mention when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the White House in 2024.
Mr Bhatia said he first heard the calling to work in the space industry when he was three years old and his family visited the Kennedy Space Center.
In the 1990s, he studied computer science at Columbia University with a focus on streaming video. He then worked for ESPN to help launch their first HD streaming of sports online, an innovation that would form the foundation for modern-day streaming services.
He then went on to become the founder and CEO of three of his own companies - Explain Everything, Chatwala, and Kaptur.
He was introduced to Axiom Space for the first time while working for Citi Ventures, Citibank's venture capital arm. He left Citi Ventures for Google and joined Axiom four years later.
Under Mr Bhatia's leadership, Axiom Space will accelerate delivery of the world's first commercial, human-rated space station, leveraging its exclusive authorisation to connect its first module to the International Space Station in 2027.
The Axiom-4 Mission
The crew, which includes members from India, the US, Hungary, and Poland, is currently preparing for the flight on the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket and SpaceX Crew Dragon from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Axiom-4 Mission Crew | From left: Shubhanshu Shukla, Peggy Whitson (US), , Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary)
Axiom said the mission will "realise the return" to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, with each nation's first government-sponsored flight in more than 40 years.
While Ax-4 marks these countries' second human spaceflight mission in history, it will be the first time all three nations will execute a mission on board the International Space Station.
On this fully commercial mission, India is paying all the costs for the training and the flight to the ISS. The estimated costs are between $60 and $70 million for the one-off single seat on this private space mission.
India has chosen Group Captain Shukla as the primary astronaut and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair as his backup for the nearly fortnight-long mission.
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 organisations.
Sign up to read this article FREE!
Exclusive Stories:
Dive into content reserved just for members.
Fewer Ads:
A cleaner, more enjoyable reading experience.
Enhanced Interface:
Tailored just for you.
Join Now – It's Free!
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Business Standard
4 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Minda Corporation enters into JV with Japan-based Toyodenso Co.
To manufacture advance automotive switches for Indian market Minda Corporation announced a Joint Venture with Japan-based Toyodenso Co. for advance automotive switches for the Indian market. The partnership will provide end-to end solutions including design, development, manufacturing and marketing of Automotive Switches for two-wheelers, Passenger Cars and other automotive segment for the Indian market. Minda Corporation will have majority stake in the newly formed venture with an investment in the agreed shareholding ratio of 60:40. The new Joint venture has already received orders from customers in India. This greenfield plant will be set up in Noida, Uttar Pradesh and is expected to commence operations by 2nd half of FY 2026-27. This partnership is strategically aligned to cater to the rising demand for advanced switches in the Indian automotive sector and in line with the company synergistic product portfolio and localization of new products and technologies for the customers. Through this partnership, Toyodenso will bring new technologies and advanced engineering capabilities while Minda Corporation will contribute with its deep expertise in localised manufacturing, and robust supply chain ecosystem etc.
&w=3840&q=100)

Business Standard
4 minutes ago
- Business Standard
India's AI market set to triple, may cross $17 billion by 2027: Report
The Indian AI market is expected to grow to over $17 billion by 2027, more than tripling its current size, driven by increased investments in enterprise technology, a flourishing digital ecosystem, and a strong pool of skilled professionals, according to BCG. The nation makes up 16 per cent of the world's AI talent, placing it behind only the US, reflecting both its demographic advantage and strong STEM education system. Boston Consulting Group (BCG), in a report titled "India's AI Leap: BCG Perspective on Emerging Challengers", said India has a thriving AI ecosystem with over 600,000 AI professionals, 700 million internet users, and a surge of AI startups with over 2000 launched in the past three years. "India's domestic AI market is projected to more than triple to $17 billion by 2027, making it one of the fastest-growing AI economies globally. This momentum is fuelled by rising enter-prise tech investments, a thriving digital ecosystem, and a robust talent base," the report said. Beyond talent, India's public digital infrastructures -- such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, and the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) -- provide a robust and scalable base for AI integration across various industries. With a large base of internet users and extensive smartphone adoption, India generates massive volumes of data, which is the fuel for training AI models. This scale, BCG said, combined with open architecture, is enabling the development of population-scale AI solutions across sectors. India is set to add 45 new data centres in 2025, bringing an extra 1,015 MW of capacity to its existing network of 152 centres. The government's IndiaAI initiative, with a corpus of over Rs 10,000 crore, will establish national AI compute infrastructure, providing access to over 10,000 GPUs for AI model training and research. "AI is no longer an option but a business necessity. Indian companies are using it to leapfrog traditional growth curves and compete confidently on the global stage. "While the hurdle rate for successful deployment is high, the rewards are even higher, and the results speak for themselves. What separates the leaders is not just the tech, but how they manage change, build talent, and embed AI into the fabric of their organisation," said Mandeep Kohli, Managing Director and Partner, BCG India.


India Today
7 minutes ago
- India Today
India now home to over 85,000 millionaires, ranks 4th globally: Report
India has emerged as the fourth-largest hub of high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) globally, with 85,698 people now having a net worth of over US$10 million, according to the Knight Frank Global Wealth Report now trails only the United States, China, and Japan in terms of the number of wealthy individuals, accounting for 3.7% of the global HNWI report highlights India's strong economic growth, rise in entrepreneurial activity, and increasing access to capital as the key reasons behind the growing concentration of personal Knight Frank report highlights that India's digital infrastructure, especially the spread of smartphones and digital banking, has made wealth creation more accessible than in earlier report also points to a sharp increase in India's billionaire population, which rose by 12% over the past year. India now has 191 billionaires, up from 165 in includes 26 new billionaires added in a single year, a pace far quicker than the seven added in 2019. Indian billionaires now collectively hold around US$0.95 trillion, ahead of France, Germany, and the UK, though still behind the United States and individuals in India, like their global counterparts, continue to place a high value on real estate. Nearly 30% of billionaire wealth globally is held in real estate, and this trend is particularly strong in India, where property is seen as a symbol of status and stability. Indian HNWIs are also increasingly looking to invest in overseas markets such as Dubai, London, and to the report, India's population of high-net-worth individuals is projected to grow by 43% by 2028, reaching an estimated 122,119 individuals. This projected growth is one of the fastest among all major report also notes a rising appetite among Indian investors for equities and risk-based assets, setting them apart from more conservative investors in Europe or Japan.