The director of human spaceflight at Axiom Dr Peggy A Whitson has a message for Prime Minister Narendra Modi - the integration of commercial and government space programmes is the future.
Former NASA astronaut Dr Whitson and Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who is set to become the second Indian to go to space, spoke about their planned private spaceflight to the International Space Station under the Axiom Mission 4 in partnership with Elon Musk's SpaceX and NASA.
To a question by NDTV on PM Modi's plan for sending an Indian to the Moon by 2047 and whether Group Captain Shukla would be laying the first steps for India's Gaganyaan, Dr Whitson said, "Well, I really do believe we are helping India's space programme by having somebody like Shubhanshu get this experience. I think it will be something that he can tie in and build into the future."
"I think for the Prime Minister, it's important to really get the word out about this mission and the future of the Indian space programme. It's important for him to encourage industry and technology as a result of this to try and expand even more on the capabilities, because as I said before, the integration of commercial and government space is going to be where the future leads us," Dr Whitson, one of the most experienced astronauts in the world, told NDTV.
The Axiom mission to the ISS has been postponed to June 10. The astronauts are set to be launched into space on board SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, the same launchpad from where the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon blasted off.
The spaceflight was originally scheduled for May 29 and then rescheduled to June 8.
The Axiom-4 crew also comprises mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, taking the total crew to four.
Group Captain 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.
PM Modi is expected to interact with the Axiom-4 crew during their 14-day stay at the ISS.
