India, Poland and Hungary make space flight comeback with Axiom mission to ISS
Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla is the first Indian in space since Rakesh Sharma, who took part in a Soviet-led initiative in 1984
A US commercial mission carrying astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary blasted off to the International Space Station on Wednesday, marking the first time in decades that these nations have sent crew members to space.
Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, launched from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 2.31am, with a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
The vehicle is scheduled to dock with the orbital lab on Thursday at around 1100 GMT and remain there for up to 14 days.
Aboard the spacecraft were 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 the company Axiom Space, which organises private space flights, among other things.
The last time India, Poland or Hungary sent people to space, their current crop of astronauts had not yet been born – and back then they were called cosmonauts, as they all flew on Soviet missions before the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Shukla became the first Indian in space since Rakesh Sharma, an air force pilot who travelled to the Salyut 7 space station in 1984 as part of a Soviet-led initiative to help allied countries access space.