Overview

• The Ax-4 mission, postponed from May 29 due to technical checks, is now scheduled to launch on June 8, 2025, at 9:11 a.m. EDT from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
• The crew includes Peggy Whitson as commander, Shubhanshu Shukla as pilot, and specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland) and Tibor Kapu (Hungary).
• Shubhanshu Shukla will become the first Indian to visit the ISS and only the second Indian in space, advancing India's Gaganyaan spaceflight program.
• The mission will feature up to 14 days of microgravity research, technology demonstrations, and educational outreach, with experiments relevant to India's space ambitions.
• NASA and Axiom Space aim to further commercialize low-Earth orbit operations, with Ax-4 marking the fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS.