NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are now targeting 12.01 PM (IST), Wednesday, June 25, for launch of the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom Mission 4, NASA said.
"If we have to ensure the safety of our country, we have to serve through our satellites. We have to monitor our 7,000 km seashore. We have to monitor the entire northern part continuously. Without satellite and drone technology, we can't achieve that."
The Human-rated LVM3 vehicle, the Crew Escape System and the Crew Module and Service Module are all in final stages of testing and integration.
K Kasturirangan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), passed away at the age of 84 in Bengaluru on Friday. He was suffering from age-related ailments for the past few months. Kasturirangan, who also served as the chairperson of the drafting committee on the New National Education Policy (NEP), was a renowned space scientist and had a distinguished career spanning several decades. He was known for his contributions to ISRO's successful space programs and his role in shaping India's education policy.
Shukla will be the second Indian to travel to space four decades after Rakesh Sharma's iconic spaceflight onboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in 1984.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will enjoy a range of Indian dishes, including rice varieties, moong dal halwa, and mango nectar, during his 14-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). He will also have the option to choose from international cuisine, as approved by NASA. ISRO and DRDO have developed the Indian food options for astronauts of the Gaganyaan mission and Shukla will be able to savor them with NASA's approval.
'The launch of Axiom 04 slated for 11th June 2025 for sending first Indian Gaganyatri to ISS is postponed.'
Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station, piloted by Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla with three other crew members, has been delayed and will now be launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 8 at 6:41 pm IST.
Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla concludes his 18-day stay at the International Space Station, praising India's ambition, confidence, and pride as seen from space. He echoes Rakesh Sharma's iconic words and expresses gratitude to all involved in the Axiom-4 mission.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others are expected to travel to the International Space Station on June 19, after SpaceX successfully resolved the liquid oxygen leak in its Falcon-9 rocket, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Saturday.
State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has won a bid under which it will receive technology from the Indian Space Research Organisation for the end-to-end commercial production of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), a first for the industry as India seeks to become a global hub for small satellite manufacturing and launches.
On Thursday, NASA announced that it was working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aft-most segment of the International Space Station's Zvezda service module.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others are set to embark on the Axiom Space's fourth human spaceflight from National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on June 10 and are likely to dock at the International Space Station on June 11 at about 10 pm IST, after a nearly 28-hour journey.
Following the postponement of the Axiom 4 mission, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla's father, Shambhu Dayal Shukla, said that his family is 'mentally' prepared for the mission.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully de-docked the SpaDeX satellites, a significant achievement that clears the path for future missions such as exploring the moon, human spaceflight, and building India's own space station. The de-docking, announced by Union Minister Jitendra Singh, follows a successful docking experiment conducted in January. The SpaDeX mission involved launching two satellites, SDX01 and SDX02, to demonstrate the docking technology in space.
Shubhanshu Shukla's first seven days in space have combined science, ceremony, and moments of levity.
The rocket flight was aborted in order to plug the liquid oxygen leak identified during post-static fire Falcon 9 rocket inspections.
SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket was scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Tuesday evening.
The mission was originally scheduled for lift-off on May 29 but was put off multiple times when engineers detected a liquid oxygen leak in the boosters of the Falcon-9 rocket and NASA also detected leaks in the ageing Russian module of the ISS.
If Rakesh Sharma represented the dreams of a nascent India looking outward, Shubhanshu Shukla embodies a confident India reaching for the controls.
The main focus of the all weather RISAT-1B satellite will be to observe the Indian land with its C-band synthetic aperture radar.
SpaceX, National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and Axiom Space are closely watching weather patterns at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida where Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others look forward to their travel to the International Space Station (ISS), now scheduled for Wednesday.
The need for NavIC was cemented after India was denied access to crucial navigation data from global providers during the 1999 Kargil War.
The Lucknow-born Shukla, former NASA astronaut Mission Commander Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary are part of the Axiom-4 mission that marks the return to space for the three nations.
NISAR will not be used for surveillance and will be used to observe the earth.
'The LVM3 rocket will orbit one Block 2 BlueBird satellite in Low Earth Orbit.'
'The solution is to replace, clean up, retest and proceed.' 'There is nothing to worry about if corrected.'
'ISRO recommended to carry out in-situ repairs or replacement and conduct a low-temperature leak test to validate system performance and integrity, before proceeding with launch.'
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra D Modi's meeting United States President Donald J Trump, Russia's ambassador to India and the US charge d'affaires met Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman Dr V Narayanan.
A PSLV rocket carrying Earth observation satellite EOS-09 failed to launch from the Sriharikota spaceport early on Sunday.
ISRO has projected wheat production of 122.24 million tonnes.
The Vikram-I rocket will fly with its maximum carrying capacity and put the satellites in a Low Earth Orbit.
The two Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) satellites that the Indian Space Research Organisation is hoping to unite are at a distance of 1.5 km and will be brought much closer on January 11, the space agency said on Friday.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday said the two satellites launched to perform space docking experiments were brought within three metres and then moved safely back in a trial attempt.
Former Indian Space Research Organisation chief K Radhakrishnan will be the chief guest at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's annual 'Vijayadashami' event on October 12 in Nagpur.
New data from India's Chandrayaan-3 mission suggests that ice might be present at more locations on the Moon's surface than previously believed. The study, published in Communications Earth and Environment, analyzed temperature data collected by the ChaSTE probe onboard the Vikram lander. The researchers found that significant variations in surface temperatures can influence the formation of ice, with slopes angled away from the Sun potentially providing favorable conditions for ice accumulation. The findings have implications for future lunar exploration, suggesting that water-ice resources could be more accessible than previously thought.
Chandrayaan-4 will involve at least two separate launches of the heavylift LVM-3 rocket that will carry five different components of the mission which will be assembled in orbit.
The fuel cost will come down if rockets are launched from Kulasekarapattinam as they will have a straight trajectory and need not have to avoid Sri Lanka, which is being done by rockets flown from Sriharikota.
Sunita added that "I hope, and I think for sure, I'm gonna be going back to my father's home country and visiting with people and getting excited about the first, or not the first, but the Indian national who's going up on the Axiom Mission coming up, pretty awesome," she said.
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will be the first Indian to travel to the International Space Station (ISS), flying aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft as part of a joint effort between NASA and ISRO. Shukla, a group captain in the Indian Air Force, will serve as the pilot for the Axiom Mission 4, scheduled for launch no earlier than spring 2025. The mission will also carry the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the ISS.
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