New Delhi: On 06 July, Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla spoke to ISRO Chairman V Narayanan while orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station (ISS). Narayanan enquired about Shukla’s wellbeing as well as the science experiments and operations on board the orbital complex. Narayanan highlighted the importance of meticulously documenting his experience to provide insights and inputs for India’s own ambitious Gaganyaan programme to lift humans to Earth orbit using domestic hardware. The first-hand experience and knowledge gained by the Axiom 4 mission will be crucial for ironing out any kinks in the procedures and plugging any gaps in the crewed Gaganyaan flights.
A number of other senior officials and centre directors attended the call, including the Director of the Vicram Sarabhai Space Centre, Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) M Mohan, Director of the ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), Padmakumar ES, the scientific secretary of ISRO, Ganesh Pillai and former Director of the LPSC, N Vedachalam. The officials discussed various aspects of the ongoing mission. Shukla expressed gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing him with the opportunity to be the first Indian on board the ISS. Shukla shared the progress on the experiments, the science objectives, and the challenges being addressed.
The Axiom 4 Mission
The Axiom 4 mission to the ISS lifted off on a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on 25 July. On board were a crew of four, America’s most experienced astronaut Peggy Whitson as the Commander, ISRO Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla as the Pilot along with Mission Specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. The crew has spent 12 days in Earth orbit, living and working on the orbital complex. The planned mission duration was 14 days. ISRO is expected to release additional videos and images captured by Shukla during his stay after the splashdown, including educational science experiments conducted for the benefit of school students.