India, Poland, and Hungary Set for Historic Spaceflight Comeback with Axiom Mission 4
On Wednesday, India, Poland, and Hungary will embark on a joint space mission, sending their first astronauts into space for decades on an American commercial mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, will launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:31 am (0631 GMT) with a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
The crew includes pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, and commander Peggy Whitson of the United States, a former NASA astronaut who now works for Axiom Space. This will be the first space mission for India since 1984, when Air Force pilot Rakesh Sharma traveled to the Salyut 7 space station as part of a Soviet-led initiative. Shukla, 39, is set to become the first Indian in space since that time and is carrying the hopes and dreams of a billion hearts.
India's space agency, ISRO, sees this flight as a key stepping stone toward its own maiden crewed mission, planned for 2027 under the Gaganyaan program, meaning "sky craft" in Hindi. While aboard the ISS, Shukla is set to speak with a high-profile Indian VIP, widely speculated to be Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a soft-power moment aimed at stoking national pride.
All three countries are footing the bill for their astronauts. Hungary announced in 2022 that it was paying $100 million for its seat, while India and Poland have not disclosed how much they are spending. The mission comes after an explosive online spat between US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world's richest person and until recently Trump's ally and advisor. Trump threatened to yank SpaceX's federal contracts worth tens of billions of dollars, prompting Musk to threaten an early retirement of Dragon, the only American spacecraft currently certified to carry astronauts to the ISS. However, Musk walked back the threat a few hours later and sought to distance himself further from the situation.
Analysts believe both sides are too entangled to risk a serious break at this point. The upcoming flight marks the debut of the fifth and final Crew Dragon vehicle, which will be named once it reaches orbit, joining Endeavour
