Poland, Hungary, and India Join Next Axiom Crew

Axiom Space’s fourth mission aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is set to carry astronauts from Poland, Hungary, and India next year, setting the stage for yet another record breaking international segment.

As described in a press release posted on the website of the Polish Space Agency (POLSA), Polish Astronaut Sławosz Uznański, the only active Polish astronaut, is to begin training for his first mission to space on August 5th, 2024. Originally selected as a reserve astronaut as part of ESA’s Astronaut Class of 2022, Uznański became a full ESA project astronaut on September 1st, 2023 as Poland, ESA, and Axiom Space moved forwards with plans to launch a Polish astronaut to the ISS in 2024. While the mission known as Axiom-4 (or Ax-4 for short) was originally slated for no earlier than October 2024, POLSA’s press release confirms the mission has slipped into 2025.

Sławosz Uznański will become the second Polish astronaut to ever fly into space; the first was Mirosław Hermaszewski, who flew aboard the Soyuz 30 mission to the Salyut 6 space station under the Soviet Union’s Interkosmos programme back in June of 1978.

Joining Uznański on the mission will be American commander Peggy Whitson, Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu, and according to POLSA’s posting, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla.

Commander Peggy Whitson serves as Axiom Space’s Director of Human Space Flight, and has a storied history in space. Originally flying under NASA’s Shuttle Program, she was a member of three different Shuttle crews to the ISS from 2002 to 2016 before retiring from NASA’s astronaut corps in 2018. Later, Whitson joined Axiom Space, and went on to command the Axiom-2 mission which launched in May of 2023, becoming the first female commander of a private astronaut mission. Over her impressive career, Whitson has spent a grand total of 675 cumulative days in space, an unmatched record among both American astronauts and women astronauts. The Axiom-4 mission is currently planned to add approximately 14 days onto that total.

Astronaut Tibor Kapu is part of Hungary’s Hungarian to Orbit Program, or HUNOR, launched by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade back in 2021 with the goal of putting a Hungarian Astronaut in space by 2024. The ultimate goal of HUNOR is to enable Hungarian research aboard the International Space Station; to this end, Kapu was selected alongside backup astronaut Gyula Cserényi back in May of 2023 out of a pool of four finalists (and 244 candidates before that). In a similar case to Uznański, Kapu will be the second ever Hungarian astronaut, returning Hungary to space. The first Hungarian astronaut was Bertalan Farkas, who like Hermaszewski flew under the Soviet Interkosmos program aboard Soyuz 36, which also visited the Salyut 6 station. Tibor Kapu and Gyula Cserényi arrived in Houston, Texas on July 31st to begin training for the mission.

The fourth and final crew member for the Axiom-4 mission, Shubhanshu Shukla, is a historic development for global space cooperation. As previously reported by Space Scout, the United States and India recently penned an agreement to expand collaboration between the two nations in space. This agreement included technology sharing, and establishing a roadmap for collaboration which included working together to procure a seat for an Indian astronaut to fly to the International Space Station. This assignment of Shukla aboard the crew of Axiom-4 is the result of that effort, less than two months after the White House press release which announced the agreement. According to official ISRO statements, Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair has been selected as Shukla’s backup.

Shubhanshu Shukla accumulated over 2000 hours of flight experience both as a Test Pilot and Fighter Combat Leader for the Indian Air Force. Following training at the Russian Yuri Gagarin Astronaut Training Centre in Moscow, Shukla was selected as one of four astronauts for ISRO’s Gaganyaan Program, which seeks to develop and operate an orbital crew vehicle. Gaganyaan’s success would mark India as the fourth nation to achieve the capability of launching astronauts into orbit. Cooperation with the United States aims to garner experience which will support India’s own astronaut operations in Earth orbit. India’s long-term vision for its place in space is ambitious, similar to where China stood in the early days of the Shenzhou Program, and includes a domestic space station and eventual crewed lunar program. 

Establishing a specific date for the Axiom-4 mission will take some time; all crew members must be approved by the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel, which according to POLSA’s release has not happened yet. Axiom-4 is aiming to be a truly historic mission for all involved parties, should plans hold, setting new records and marking renewed presence in space for Poland, Hungary, and India. Axiom Space continues to act as a power broker, allowing access to the ISS for countries that otherwise have difficulty finding slots, and establishing international relationships which may continue once the private enterprise transitions into operating its own space station in the post-ISS landscape.

Edited by Beverly Casillas and Nik Alexander