New Delhi: The Axiom-4 space mission having been pushed back by two days, Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who is part of the Axiom team, said he was confident of success.

Axiom Space has announced that the lift-off will now take place at 5.52 pm on June 10. This is the second time the mission has been deferred.

While the authorities have not ascribed a reason for the delay, sources indicated that the NASA-ISRO collaboration will need time to prepare. Group Captain Shukla - who is on mandatory pre-launch quarantine at Florida's Kennedy Space Center – said that for the last one year, they have been undergoing rigorous training and he is confident of success.

"I can say that we have experienced a lot of different aspects or facets of this mission," he said. These, he said, included theoretical studies, simulator training, and "undergoing various protocols of underwater survival and emergency egress".

"Having done these activities over the past few months, repeatedly again and again, I feel very confident, not just in my ability, but in the ability of this team who is sitting here, to execute this mission successfully," he said. "I am extremely confident that we will be successful in this mission," he added.