Lucknow's Shubhanshu Shukla set for space history
The historic moment will come when Axiom Space's fourth commercial mission to the International Space Station lifts off onboard SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida (USA) on Wednesday evening. The lift-off was initially scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed by a day due to weather conditions.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday informed that the launch of Axiom-4 mission for sending Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed from June 10.
ISRO cited weather conditions for the postponement of the Axiom-4 or Ax4 mission, which will now take off on June 11 with the targeted time of launch being 5:30 pm (8 am EST).
Ahead of the lift-off, his mother Asha Shukla and father Shambhu Dayal Shukla, who live in the state capital's Triveni Nagar, said, 'It's a proud moment for the family. First, he got selected into NDA (National Defence Academy), the air force and ISRO. All these happened one after the other.'
'We are praying for the success of the mission which our son is leading and which holds enormous importance for the country,' Shambhu Dayal Shukla further said.
Shubhanshu's elder sister Shuchi Misra said, 'We are eagerly looking forward to the launch. Shux (Shubhanshu's nickname) is incredibly focused yet brimming with joy.
Before news of the postponement came, Shubhanshu Shukla's alma mater – a prominent city school – had planned to organise a grand public watch party to celebrate the lift-off.
'We will begin our programme at 3.30 pm on Wednesday as the mission launch has been postponed,' a school official said. The programme was initially planned for Tuesday to enable students, teachers, civic leaders, defence personnel and Shukla's family members to participate.
Several hoardings congratulating the 39-year-old Lucknow-born Indian Air Force pilot have come up across the state capital.
Shubhanshu will pilot the SpaceX Crew Dragon with NASA senior Dr Peggy Whitson and crewmates from Poland and Hungary on a 14-day research flight.
The Lucknow-born Shubhanshu Shukla will be the second Indian to travel to space, 41 years after his idol Rakesh Sharma undertook a spaceflight in 1984 onboard the erstwhile Soviet Union's Soyuz spacecraft for an eight-day stay in orbit.
In March 2024, Shukla made headlines as he was one of the four selected for ISRO's Gaganyaan Mission.
'Venturing into the unknown comes with the domain knowledge of being a test pilot,' Shubhanshu Shukla had told HT over phone in 2024.
Shukla had then confessed that the curiosity for the unknown was what drove him to apply for this mission and that the feeling of having been selected took a while to sink in.
'It was all so fast and we were so busy at the time. It only sunk in when we had already left for training in Russia. The feeling sank in very gradually,' he had said.
He also shared that while he had no apprehensions about the mission, 'harbouring a little bit of anxiety is only sensible as it helps one to introspect.'
(WITH AGENCY INPUTS)
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