The first picture of the Dragon spacecraft, set to carry Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on a historic mission to the International Space Station (ISS), have been made public.
The spacecraft is built to transport four astronauts, who will return to Earth at the end of their mission. It has reached the hangar at pad 39A in Florida, where it is preparing for its first space flight. Astronauts from the United States, India, Poland, and Hungary will go on this thrilling adventure as part of a private mission by Axiom Space.
SpaceX shared the first image of the rocket in a post on X and wrote, "Dragon arrives at the hangar at pad 39A in Florida ahead of its first flight. Falcon 9 is targeted to launch Dragon and @Axiom_Space's Ax-4 crew to the @Space_Station. Next Tuesday, June 10."
The earlier liftoff was scheduled for June 8, 2025, at 6.41 pm but was postponed by two days to June 10. While no reason was officially announced for the delay, a source said it happened to "account for the weather during vehicle transportation and completing final processing of the vehicle ahead of launch".
Group Captain Shukla is scheduled to pilot the Axiom-4 mission, a private astronaut mission that will launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. In a statement, Axiom Space said, "The launch of the Axiom-4 crew will take place from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida".
His space voyage is a historic one for India, coming forty years after Rakesh Sharma's iconic spaceflight on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. It is particularly significant as it will help India's space travel program and the Gaganyaan mission.
Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland, Tibor Kapu from Hungary, and Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and mission commander, will accompany Group Captain Shukla on this space trip. The astronauts will perform scientific, outreach and commercial activities on board the orbiting laboratory for up to 14 days after docking.
