In a flawless display of precision engineering, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the Axiom-4 mission — carrying Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) — and made a safe vertical landing back at Landing Zone-1 just eight minutes after liftoff.
The launch took place on Tuesday from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the same historic site from which Apollo 11 lifted off in 1969. The Falcon 9’s booster executed a textbook landing, marking another milestone in SpaceX’s reusable rocket technology.
The Axiom-4 mission, a private astronaut mission, represents a major leap for human spaceflight for India, Poland, and Hungary, each contributing crew members. The mission will conduct around 60 scientific experiments involving 31 countries, including India, the US, Saudi Arabia, and multiple European nations.
The launch, originally delayed six times due to weather and technical issues, narrowly avoided a seventh setback after a last-minute software glitch blocked weather data from being uploaded. Engineers resolved the issue just in time, allowing the mission to proceed as scheduled.
This mission marks a historic return to space for India, with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla becoming the first Indian astronaut to reach the ISS, rekindling the nation’s human spaceflight legacy nearly 41 years after Rakesh Sharma’s mission in 1984.
