The Axiom-4 mission, carrying Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station, has been pushed back by a couple of days — with the liftoff now expected “no earlier than” Tuesday, June 10, at 05:52 pm. The mission was earlier expected to be launched on Sunday, June 8. “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,” Axiom Space, a private US space company, said on Tuesday. The four-member crew of the mission has an astronaut each from India, United States, Poland and Hungary. The US astronaut, Peggy Whitson, who is the commander of the mission, is a veteran space traveller having spent 675 days in space, the maximum for any woman. The other three astronauts are each marking the return of their country to space after a gap of over four decades. In a press conference ahead of the launch next week, Shukla said he was eagerly awaiting his astronaut number. “Our commander knows the number, but refuses to reveal it,” he said. So far, 735 people have been to space, so these three would be allocated astronaut numbers 736, 737 and 738. It is possible that Shukla, being the pilot of the mission, gets precedence over the other two, who have been designated mission specialists, and gets allocated number 736, but it is not certain. Shukla said right now he was just excited about seeing the Earth from a vantage point that very few have experienced. “I will conduct seven Indian experiments developed by brilliant minds from the research institutions across our nation investigating the effect of microgravity on cultures ranging from stem cells to crop seeds. These experiments will pave the way for India's progress in microgravity science,” he said. Shukla, who repeatedly mentioned his inspiration Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to go into space, said during his two-week stay at the ISS, he will also interact with students, academia and “a VIP” he did not name. “If even one young person is moved to explore the cosmos because of this mission, we will have already succeeded,” Shukla said. The crew also revealed their zero-G indicator — a swan plushie named ‘Joy’. Zero-G indicator is a small item, often a plushie, that provides astronauts a visual cue that they have entered a state of weightlessness. The swan plushie was selected as it represents virtues such as wisdom, loyalty, resilience, and beauty of nature in India, Hungary and Poland. Shukla said in India the swan is considered the vehicle of Goddess Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom.
