Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla spoke to Isro chairman V Narayanan on Sunday – their first conversation since Shukla scripted history as the sole Indian astronaut to reach the International Space Station (ISS).
Shukla’s call to Narayanan, also secretary of the department of space, was an acknowledgment of the Indian space agency’s team’s efforts in ensuring his safe travel to the ISS.
According to Isro, Narayanan, during the call, expressed his keen interest in Shukla’s well-being and inquired about the various scientific experiments and activities being conducted on the ISS.
As part of the Axiom-4 mission, Shukla who serves as the mission pilot is more than halfway through the 14 days on ISS where he is conducting seven home-grown experiments and five scientific investigations as part of Isro-Nasa collaboration.
Expressing his gratitude to PM Narendra Modi for the for providing him with this “incredible opportunity to represent India on the ISS”, Shukla also shared updates on the progress of the experiments, activities being carried out on ISS and various challenges being addressed.
“The Chairman emphasised the significance of documenting all experiments and activities meticulously after Shubhanshu’s return to Earth, as this will provide valuable insights and inputs for the development of India’s human spaceflight program, Gaganyaan,” read the press statement.
The Gaganyaan programme aims to demonstrate India’s capability to launch a crewed spacecraft into low Earth orbit. “The experiences and knowledge gained from this mission will be crucial for its success. Shubhanshu Shukla’s ISS mission has been executed under the Isro-Axiom Spaceflight agreement,” said Isro.
The discussion was attended by several senior Isro officials who discussed various aspects of the mission and the experiments being conducted.
Narayanan reiterated that the entire Isro team continues to work closely to support him throughout the mission.
Prior to the mission, Narayanan had regular meetings with Shukla and provided guidance on the scientific objectives and the importance of the mission for India’s space programme. He also interacted with Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, the standby astronaut, to ensure all necessary preparations were in place for a successful mission.
Senior officials who were part of the call include Unnikrishnan Nair, director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and chairman of the Program Management Council for Human Space Programme, M Mohan, director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Padmakumar ES, director of ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), M Ganesh Pillai, scientific secretary of ISRO, and N Vedachalam, former LPSC director.