What a ride! Shux from space as Axiom-4 Mission finally lifts off
BENGALURU: 'Namaskar, to all my countrymen. What a ride! After 41 years, we are back in space and what a ride it has been.' These were the first words of Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission pilot and the first Indian to go to space in 41 years, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (nicknamed 'Shux'), on Wednesday when the mission was finally launched at 12.01 pm IST from Launch Complex 39A of Kennedy Space Centre in Florida after six postponements since May 29.
Soon after giving a heads-up and clearing all parameters, the much-awaited commercial space mission by Axiom Space – in collaboration with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the European Space Agency (ESA) – was launched. The spacecraft is now scheduled to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, 28-and-half-hours after launch at around 4.30 pm IST.
After acclimatising with the environment in space, the Ax-4 mission's four-member crew will carry out the listed 60 experiments, seven of which will be conducted by Shukla. Apart from Shukla, the other three crew members of the mission are mission commander Peggy Whitson from the USA, a former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, and the two mission specialists, European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Sławosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
Using the Amateur Radio on the ISS (ARISS), the astronauts will hold live classes and interactive sessions with students, experts and VIPs from ISS, as a part of their 14-day mission.
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