ISRO confirms June 19 launch for Shubhanshu Shukla’s space mission

New Delhi: Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is set to lift off for the International Space Station (ISS) on June 19, Axiom Space has confirmed, according to a statement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday.

The mission had originally been scheduled for June 11 but was postponed due to technical issues related to the Zvezda module on the ISS. A leak detected in the propulsion bay during a pre-launch test led to the delay.

ISRO said Axiom Space, in collaboration with NASA and SpaceX, has since resolved the issue and confirmed the new launch date following a coordination meeting. "The liquid oxygen leak observed in the Falcon 9 launch vehicle has been successfully resolved," ISRO said.

The upcoming mission will mark a major milestone for India, as Shukla will become the first Indian to visit the ISS, and the second Indian in space after Rakesh Sharma's historic 1984 mission aboard a Soviet spacecraft.

Shukla will serve as pilot on the mission, alongside veteran American astronaut Peggy Whitson as commander. The crew also includes Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, who will serve as mission specialists.

While on board the ISS, Shukla will conduct cutting-edge experiments focused on space food and nutrition, developed under a joint initiative by ISRO and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), with support from NASA.

These experiments aim to advance research on sustainable life-support systems for long-duration space missions. A key focus will be on studying the behaviour of edible microalgae in space, analysing their growth and nutritional viability under microgravity and radiation exposure.

Researchers will compare the transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic changes in algal species grown aboard the ISS with those grown on Earth to better understand their potential as a reliable food source for future interplanetary travel.