Axiom-04 Mission: The pinnacle of US-India partnership in space

The Axiom Mission 4 and Expedition 73 crews join together for a group portrait inside the International Space Station’s Harmony module. In the front row (from left) are Ax-4 crewmates Tibor Kapu, Peggy Whitson, Shubhanshu Shukla, and Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski with Expedition 73 crewmates Anne McClain and Takuya Onishi. In the rear are, Expedition 73 crewmates Alexey Zubritskiy, Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov, Jonny Kim, and Nichole Ayers.
PHOTO: NASA

On February 13, 2025, President Donald Trum and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during an ‘Official Working Visit’ released a Joint Statement, a follow up of the Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, announcing a new initiative – the “U.S.-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century” – to drive transformative change across key pillars of cooperation,” the White House announced.

It contained among other things, an initiative on space cooperation, which read as follows:

“The leaders hailed 2025 as a pioneering year for U.S.-India civil space cooperation, with plans for a NASA-ISRO effort through AXIOM to bring the first Indian astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS), and early launch of the joint “NISAR” mission, the first of its kind to systematically map changes to the Earth’s surface using dual radars. The leaders called for more collaboration in space exploration, including on long duration human spaceflight missions, spaceflight safety and sharing of expertise and professional exchanges in emerging areas, including planetary protection. The leaders committed to further commercial space collaboration through industry engagements in conventional and emerging areas, such as connectivity, advanced spaceflight, satellite and space launch systems, space sustainability, space tourism and advanced space manufacturing.”

Despite delays, but with what some may say was a relatively quick implementation, almost exactly 5 months from that Feb. 13 Joint Statement, the Axiom 4 Dragon Mission to the International Space Station, which included Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, landed back on earth.

On July 15, NASA noted, “Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 2:31 a.m. PDT Tuesday ending a 20-day spaceflight that saw the private astronauts perform critical microgravity research aboard the International Space Station. Veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has accumulated 695 days in space over five missions, led Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla and Mission Specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu back to Earth aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.”

ISRO called the collaborative mission “a vital stepping stone in building India’s own crewed mission operations infrastructure, enhancing readiness for future indigenous human spaceflight programs such as Gaganyaan and the Bhartiya Antariksha Station.”

On its website, ISRO has a blow-by-blow account of Shukla’s 20 days on ISS, including his adaptability, his experiments, and the outreach to students in India.

On his return, Shukla began undergoing a seven-day structured post-mission medical evaluation and recovery protocol under the supervision of Axiom Space and ISRO flight surgeons. That program includes cardiovascular assessments, musculoskeletal tests, and psychological debriefs aimed at ensuring full physiological recovery and data capture for future missions.

Indian Space Research Organization’s mission operation team for Axiom-04 and NASA collaboration, poses for a photo at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX. PHOTO: @ISRO.GOV.IN

Throughout the Axiom-04 mission, as part of India’s participation a dedicated ISRO high-level delegation and Mission Operations Team was deployed to Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, which was led by the Chairman, ISRO and the Secretary, Department of Space, Dr. V Narayanan. The delegation participated in the launch operations, ISRO noted on its website. Initially, the launch was rescheduled multiple times due to technical issues including oxygen leakage in booster stage engine bay.

“On insistence of ISRO team, oxygen leakage issue was fully resolved leading to safe &successful launch,” ISRO said. Later, the delegation moved to the Johnson Space Center, Houston, to join in the docking operations.

ISRO delegation led by India’s Secretary, Department of Space Dr. V. Narayanan, at the Johnson Space Center. PHOTO: @ISRO.GOV.IN

The Mission operations team continued to stay in Houston, ISRO said, “gaining invaluable first-hand experience in managing human spaceflight operations.”

The team was embedded alongside NASA and Axiom flight controllers, participating in real-time decision-making, telemetry tracking, crew timeline management, and health monitoring of both the astronaut and the science payloads.

“This exposure provided critical insights into international crewed mission coordination, emergency response protocols, and the complexities of orbital operations,” ISRO noted.

The Axiom-04 Mission collaboration is the pinnacle of US-India space research cooperation which has a longer history.