Since August 2024, Indian Air Force fighter pilots-turned-Indian astronaut candidates Group Captains Shubhanshu Shukla and Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair have trained at the human spaceflight centres in the US, Japan, and Europe. This was in preparation for the American commercial mission Axiom-4, scheduled for launch in May 2025, that will see an Indian astronaut (Shukla) returning to space after 41 years. Shukla will be the first Indian astronaut to fly to the International Space Station, an orbiting lab that is 425 km above the earth.

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Responding to questions from WION’s Sidharth.M.P, veteran American astronaut Peggy Whitson, who leads the Axiom-4 mission elaborated on the training undertaken by the Indian duo.

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Whitson, who also serves as the Director of Human Spaceflight at the American firm, said, Axiom Space mission astronauts undergo training set by us, NASA, SpaceX, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and European Space Agency (ESA) to prepare them for missions to low Earth-orbit (LEO) and operations aboard the International Space Station. These training programmes ensure the crew is adept at functioning within the space station’s multinational environment and to efficiently and successfully execute their mission tasks onboard.

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An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the space station, they are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

The training completed with the European Space Agency covers communications systems, emergency response procedures, and conducting research activities inside the Columbus module. This module, which is Europe’s contribution to the International Space Station, allows researchers on the ground, aided by the station’s crew, to conduct research in a weightless environment. In addition, experiments and applications can be conducted outside the module in the vacuum of space.

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The crew completed rigorous training sessions at JAXA’s Tsukuba Space Centre in Japan, concentrating on understanding the operation of the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), known as Kibō. 
Kibō, Japanese for “hope”, is a space research facility enabling astronauts to investigate a variety of space phenomena. Experiments range from biology to physics to technology.

While both Indian candidates, Shukla and Nair, have undergone the aforementioned training, Shukla is the primary candidate for the Axiom-4 mission. However, the overall training and experience gathered by the Indian duo would benefit the fledgling Indian human spaceflight programme Gaganyaan, which aims to launch Indian astronauts to low earth orbit and bring them home safely. The Indian government has also outlined long-term plans to build a crewed space station and carry out crewed moon landings.

Axiom-4 will carry a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station, where the crew will stay for two weeks and perform various experiments. The astronauts would be flying on the SpaceX Falcon9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule. This mission will facilitate the return to human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, given that each nation’s first and only government-sponsored spaceflight had taken place more than 40 years ago. The Ax-4 crewmembers will represent their nations in LEO and perform scientific experiments and demonstrations that are of high national importance.

Peggy Whitson, aged 65, who has spent a cumulative 675 days aboard the space station will be leading Axiom-4 as its Mission Commander. The Commander leads, trains and guides the crew. Shukla will serve as the Pilot, who will be second-in-command, and works operations of the Dragon spacecraft that ferries them to space and back. The two other astronauts from Poland and Hungary will serve as Mission Specialists with emphasis on research.