Axiom Space Announces Ax-4 Crew, Peggy Whitson Will Be Commander

Axiom Space announced the crew for its planned Axiom 4 mission today. The company’s release stated that it is partnering with India, through the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Poland, with European Space Agency (ESA) support, and Hungary to send three national astronauts to the space station on Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4), the company’s next commercial human spaceflight mission to the orbiting laboratory.

Ax-4 Commander Peggy Whitson, Mission Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański of ESA/Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary will make up the crew for the flight, Axiom said.

“Ax-4 represents Axiom Space’s continued efforts to build opportunity for countries to research, innovate, test, and engage with people around the world while in low-Earth orbit,” said Michael Suffredini, CEO of Axiom Space.

Suffredini added that, “This mission broadens horizons for nations with ambitious goals of advancing scientific, technological, and economic pursuits. Our collaboration with ESA for a second time and the inclusion of Hungary and India underscores Axiom Space’s ability to cultivate global partners, expand the scope of exploration, and open up new avenues to grow a global space economy.”

Peggy Whitson

Dr. Peggy Whitson (Rice University, 1986) is one of the most experienced astronauts in spaceflight history, having already completed four previous spaceflights. She has spent more than 675 days in space and has flown on the Space Shuttle, Soyuz, and Crew Dragon on previous flights.

Her 289-day flight was the longest single space flight by a woman until Christina Koch’s 328-day flight eclipsed her record. Dr. Whitson is also oldest woman spacewalker ever and holds the record for the most spacewalks by a woman. She has conducted ten EVAs during her career, totalling over sixty hours outside in the darkness of space.

Dr. Whitson is 64 years old, and hails from Beaconsfield, Iowa. Axiom 4 will be her fifth spaceflight.

“I look forward to commanding my second commercial human spaceflight mission with Axiom Space,” said Peggy Whitson, Ax-4 commander. “With a culturally diverse crew, we are not only advancing scientific knowledge but also fostering international collaboration. Our previous missions set the stage. Axiom Mission 1 was the first all-private mission to the space station, Axiom Mission 2 launched the first Saudi female to space, and Axiom Mission 3 included both the first Turkish astronaut and first ESA astronaut to fly on a commercial space mission. Now, with Ax-4, we ascend even higher, bringing even more nations to low-Earth orbit and expanding humanity’s reach among the stars.”

Shubhanshu Shukla

Born in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, on October 10, 1985, wing commander Shubhanshu Shukla is an alumnus of India’s National Defence Agency, a joint-forces training academy for the Indian military.

Shukla was commissioned on June 17, 2006 in the Indian Air Force. He is a Fighter Combat Leader and a Test Pilot with approximately 2000 hours of flying experience.

Shukla will be India’s second gaganyatri – the Indian term for astronaut –  in space. Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma was aboard the Indo-Soviet crewed mission in 1984, making him the first from his country to go space. This will be ISRO’s first crewmember to fly on an American flight destined for the International Space Station.

ISRO is also independently working on advanced development of crewed flight capability. ISRO’s Human Rated Launch Vehicle (or Gaganyaan) is an ongoing program developing the technology needed to launch crewed orbital spacecraft into low Earth orbit. Gaganyaan is ostensibly near its first of two uncrewed test flights, as the first flight’s latest projected launch is sometime this year. ISRO hopes to launch its first crew in 2025.

Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla have been named for India’s first crewed flight of Gaganyaan, and undoubtedly, Shubhanshu Shukla’s training, flight experience and lessons learned from flying Crew Dragon on Axiom 4 will be of great aid to ISRO’s efforts to bring the Gaganyaan program to full fruition with a successful first mission.

Sławosz Uznański

Born in Łódź, Poland in 1984, Dr. Sławosz Uznański is a Polish engineer working at the European Space Agency (ESA) as a project astronaut since 2023. He was formerly at The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN.)

In 2011, Uznański received a doctor’s degree with distinction from the University of the Mediterranean Aix-Marseille II for thesis on radiation-tolerant designs for space applications.

He will be the second Pole to space, following Mirosław Hermaszewski in 1978. Hermaszewski flew on the Soviet Soyuz 30 spacecraft, and spent nearly eight days in Earth orbit.

Tibor Kapu

Tibor Kapu is a 32-year-old engineer who graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics in his native Hungary.

He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry on batteries for hybrid cars and radiation protection for astronauts. For the last two years, he has worked on space radiation protection at Remred Space Technologies in the space industry. As a parachutist, he has 38 jumps under his harness.

Kapu will be the second Hungarian astronaut, and like Shubhanshu Shukla, he will be the first from his country to fly on an American spacecraft to ISS. Forty-four years ago, Bertalan Farkas became the first Hungarian astronaut. Farkas flew Soyuz 36 and docked for over 26 days at the Soviet Salyut-6 space station.

Astronauts In Training

The Axiom 4 crew have arrived in Houston, according to Axiom Space, and will now begin training for their flight, slated for NET October 2024. They will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 / Crew Dragon from Florida. Peggy Whitson will lead the training.