Inside SpaceX’s Dragon: The trailblazing spacecraft that India’s Shubhanshu Shukla will pilot to the International Space Station

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force is set to create history on Wednesday as the first Indian astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS), and the first to do so aboard a commercial mission.

Selected for Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission, Shukla will serve as pilot aboard the SpaceX-built Dragon spacecraft, which will ferry him and three other astronauts on a 14-day journey to and from orbit.

At the heart of the mission is Crew Dragon, SpaceX’s autonomous spacecraft designed to carry astronauts safely to low Earth orbit and back.

Dragon: SpaceX’s flagship spacecraft for humans

The capsule, developed by Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, became the first privately-built spacecraft to take humans to the ISS in May 2020, when it flew NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on the Demo-2 mission.

That launch ended nearly a decade of NASA’s reliance on Russia’s Soyuz system.

Since then, Dragon has completed over 50 missions, including 46 visits to the ISS. It is the only spacecraft currently operational that can carry both humans and a significant amount of cargo back to Earth — a capability critical for science and station resupply missions.

Axiom mission live updates: Power loading begins in the Axiom-4 mission, spacecraft ready for launch

Dragon’s technical highlights include:

• Autonomous docking with the ISS
• Touchscreen flight controls with manual override options
• Life-support systems for extended missions
• Splashdown recovery in the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico
• Pressurised cabin volume of 9.3 m³ and an unpressurized cargo trunk of 37 m³

The spacecraft can carry up to 7 astronauts, and is regularly reused — helping drive down mission costs and turnaround times. The capsule flying Shukla has already passed pre-launch static fire tests and rehearsals at Launch Complex 39A.

Built by SpaceX: The team behind the Dragon capsule

Dragon was designed and built by SpaceX engineers at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. The team includes aerospace veterans from NASA and commercial space sectors, and developed the spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, with a focus on reusability, safety, and cost efficiency.

Dragon’s dimensions — 8.1 meters tall and 4 meters in diameter — house enough space to support crewed missions lasting several weeks. The spacecraft can carry 6,000 kg of payload to orbit and return 3,000 kg back to Earth, making it essential to both exploration and scientific experimentation.

For India, the Ax-4 mission represents a watershed moment. While Indian-origin astronauts like Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams have flown to space as U.S. nationals, Shubhanshu Shukla will be the first serving Indian citizen to reach the ISS.

During the mission, the crew will conduct over 60 experiments, including several developed by Indian institutions. These range from biomedical research to space materials studies — underscoring India's expanding presence in global space science.

The crew, which includes American astronaut Peggy Whitson, and mission specialists from Poland and Hungary, will lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission is being carried out in collaboration with NASA, ISRO, and Axiom Space, marking a new phase in India’s growing role in international human spaceflight.