Indian astronaut-designate Shubhanshu Shukla set to fly to International Space Station in May

Union Minister for Space and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh said, "The International space mission carrying an Indian astronaut is scheduled for next month. India is poised to script a defining chapter in its space journey. An Indian astronaut is set for a historic space mission as ISRO charts bold new frontiers. India's space dreams are soaring higher with Gaganyaan preparations, ISS mission, and a summer of launches."

Group Captain Shukla has been training with NASA and the private space company Axiom Space for the past eight months.

He will be flying to the ISS on a private commercial mission for which India has paid upwards of $60 million.

The mission will be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the crew of four will be seated in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, which will lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.

Shukla is 40 years old, and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chose the youngest of its astronaut designees for this mission.

The commander of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission will be former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who now works for Axiom Space.

The other two crew members are Slawosz Uznanski from Poland, a European Space Agency astronaut and will be a mission specialist, and Hungary's Tibor Kapu will also have the same role. Group Captain Shukla will be the mission's pilot.