'Really excited', IAF officer Shukla to Pilot Spacecraft Axiom-4

Designated as pilot of the Axiom Mission 4 to the ISS, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is looking forward to sharing his experience with "Bharatvaasis", plans to take items representing the country on his spaceflight and hopes to perform some yoga poses aboard the orbital laboratory. Shukla will create history as the first Indian astronaut to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the space station in Florida "no earlier than spring 2025" as part of a joint effort between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the US space agency announced on Thursday.
The Axiom Mission 4 website describes IAF group captain Shubhanshu Shukla as a distinguished pilot in the IAF who was born on October 10, 1985, in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow. Shubhanshu Shukla was commissioned into the IAF fighter wing in June 2006. As a combat leader and seasoned test pilot, Shubhanshu Shukla has 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32, the Axiom website says.Shubhanshu Shukla is also the astronaut-designate for India's own humanspace flight Gaganyaan mission.
Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to travel to space aboard the-then USSR's Soyuz T-11 mission in 1984 as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme. Former NASA astronaut and Axiom Space’s Director of Human Spaceflight, Peggy Whitson, will command the commercial mission and Shukla will be the mission pilot, the US space agency said. The two mission specialists are European Space Agency project astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.Shukla said he would carry with him a lot of items representing the regions in particular and India in general to honour his country.