Axiom Space will send three astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary to the International Space Station as part of Axiom Mission 4, which will be launched as early as October on board a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
A Falcon 9 rocket will carry the crew — Shubhanshu Shukla, Slawosz Uznanski and Tibor Kapu with American biochemistry researcher and astronaut Peggy Whitson as mission commander — from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The crewmembers are expected to spend 14 days on the ISS, during which they will perform scientific research and technology demonstration and share knowledge, resources and opportunities to promote cooperation within the space community.
Axiom Space, NASA and SpaceX are currently training the crew in Houston to prepare them for their journey to the orbiting laboratory.
Axiom Mission 4, the company’s fourth private astronaut mission to the ISS, is supported by the Indian Space Research Organisation and the European Space Agency.
In July, Axiom Space signed a spaceflight framework agreement with ISRO, similar to the SFA the company signed with the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in September 2023.
Whitson, the Ax-4 commander, said the upcoming mission will bring more nations to low Earth orbit, citing the previous Axiom flights that involved astronauts from Saudi Arabia and Turkey.