Ax-4, with India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, to liftoff on June 8

BENGALURU: Axiom Space late Wednesday said that the launch of its Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4) to the International Space Station (ISS), which will be piloted by India’s Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, will be scheduled for 9.11am (Eastern Time) — around 6.40pm IST, on June 8. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Ax-4 crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft to the ISS from Launch Complex 39A at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. TOI had reported last week that the mission, which was initially scheduled for May 29, was expected to be pushed to early June. Axiom, Nasa and SpaceX are now expected to provide a mission overview early next week. As part of Ax-4 mission, for the first time in history, astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary will fly together to the ISS as part of a government-sponsored mission — with each nation returning to human spaceflight after more than four decades. India is spending around Rs 548 crore on the mission.Aside from Shukla, the Ax-4 crewmembers are Commander Peggy Whitson of the US, mission specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.