New Delhi: International Space Station Axiom Mission 4 carrying India’s Shubhanshu Shukla and three other into the space will lift off at 12.01 pm on Wednesday.

The launch was earlier scheduled for June 22^nd, but had to be deferred. The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft flying on a Falcon-9 rocket will lift off from the Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will be India’s second astronaut going into space four decades after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma made history in 1984.  ISRO has chosen Shubhanshu Shukla fighter pilot as the prime astronaut for this historic flight.

He has been in precautionary quarantine for more than a month before the lift-off, a process meant to ensure the crew remains healthy. On the fortnight-long mission, the four-member crew of Axiom-4 Mission will conduct 60 scientific experiments, seven of which have been proposed by Indian researchers.

Group Captain Shukla will participate in a space-to-Earth outreach programme and interact with a VIP from space. Seven crew members are already at the ISS.

The fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, Axiom-4 mission, is operated by Houston based Axiom Space in partnership with NASA.

The agreement envisioned a collaborative effort between ISRO and NASA to send an Indian astronaut to the ISS, marking a new chapter in Indo-US space cooperation.