Excitement, anxiety, and a touch of prayer filled the air before astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's space mission.

On June 10, Shubhanshu Shukla, the 39-year-old Air Force Group Captain, will be one of four astronauts on the two-week Indo-US Axiom Mission-4 (Ax-4) mission. For his family back in Lucknow, it’s a matter of both pride and anxiety 

.HARBOR ISLAND-MELBOURNE BEACH (FLORIDA): 

ISRO copyright free

The mission will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will travel to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft after launching on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket. The targeted docking time is approximately 12:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 11.

What is the role of Shukla?

Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot. The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

As part of a collaboration between NASA and ISRO, Axiom Mission 4 delivers on a commitment highlighted by President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send the first ISRO astronaut to the station. The space agencies are participating in five joint science investigations and two in-orbit science, technology, engineering, and mathematics demonstrations. NASA and ISRO have a long-standing relationship built on a shared vision to advance scientific knowledge and expand space collaboration.

The private mission also carries the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the space station.

NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):

Check full schedule

Tuesday, June 10

6:15 am. – Axiom Space and SpaceX launch coverage begins.

7:25 am. – NASA joins the launch coverage on NASA+.

8:22 am. – takeoff

NASA will end coverage following orbital insertion, which is approximately 15 minutes after launch. As it is a commercial launch, NASA will not provide a clean launch feed on its channels.

Wednesday, June 11

10:30 am. – Arrival coverage begins on NASA+, Axiom Space, + SpaceX channels.

12:30 p.m. – Targeted docking to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.

Arrival coverage will continue through hatch opening and welcome remarks.

Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla blasts off into space next week as the first Indian to join the International Space Station (ISS), bearing with him New Delhi's dreams of its own manned space flight.

An airforce fighter pilot, 39-year-old Shukla is joining a four-crew mission launching from the United States with private company Axiom Space, aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

He will become the first Indian to join the ISS, and only the second ever in orbit -- an achievement that the world's most populous nation hopes will be a stepping stone for its own human flight.