Axiom Space’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS), carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others, has been postponed to June 10 at 5:52 pm IST, onboard SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. File.

Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which was scheduled to be launched on June 8, has now been postponed to June 10.

At a press conference held virtually from the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew’s quarantine location in Florida, Axiom Space announced that the crew is scheduled to launch to the ISS on June 10 at 8.22 am Eastern Time (ET) from Launch Complex 39A at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Inclement weather

“This shift allows teams to account for predicted inclement weather during the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft transport in addition to completing final processing of the spacecraft ahead of launch,” NASA said.

Following the launch on June 10, and after around 28 hours in orbit, the crew is scheduled to dock at the ISS at approximately 12.30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, June 11.

Group Captain Shukla will be the pilot of the Ax-4, and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will command the commercial mission. European Space Agency project astronauts Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, are also part of the crew.

The Ax-4 crew, which is currently in quarantine, shared insights into their final preparations.

Busy preparing

Group Captain Shukla said that he and his team have been very busy preparing for the mission. “The best part is yet to come, which is when we launch to space, but I think we have been very fortunate with the combination of people sitting in these four chairs (referring to fellow crew members),” Group Captain Shukla said.

He called upon fellow Indians to be curious about the mission. “I would just urge everybody back home to be excited about this mission and participate wholeheartedly. Be curious, be excited. I think we are going to do some really amazing things during our 14 days in the ISS,” he said.

”We have certain live events from orbit and we will be doing live interactions, including one with a VIP. We will have interactions with students, academia and also with the space industry so that I can share not just my story but also my experience on orbit with people in our country,” he said in response to a question on whether he would be interacting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from space.

Food for space

Among the food items Group Captain Shukla said he would be carrying are mango nectar, moong dal halwa, and carrot halwa.