Ax-4 readiness review today; Shubhanshu Shukla to do 5 additional experiments with Nasa, live events with students
BENGALURU: The
Axiom-4 mission
to the
International Space Station
(ISS), which will be piloted by India's Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, is set to undergo its mission readiness review on May 21 and slated to launch on June 8.
Confirming this, Dana Weigel, manager, ISS Programme, Nasa, said Tuesday: 'Nasa and
Isro
will host a joint public downlink event to showcase the strength of international collaboration and our shared commitment to expanding access to space. The two agencies will also conduct five joint science investigations in addition to two outreach activities.'
She spoke during a specific interaction to discuss mission readiness.
Adding to this, Sudeesh Balan, project director, Isro, said: 'The seven experiments we had announced earlier are mostly biological and are those proposed by Indian scientists. These will be conducted by Shukla. Aside from these, there will be five experiments in partnership with Nasa on human research programmes. Shukla will be participating in them.
'
Allen Flynt, chief of mission services, Axiom Space, while stating that they 'do carry insurance for a variety of reasons for the mission', refrained from giving the break-up or specifically saying if astronauts are covered.
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Live Event With Students
Elaborating on the public downlink events, Weigel said the details were still being worked out, but said there will be a live event with astronauts and space agency leadership. The other event she said would be science outreach on two topics: digestion and radiation.
Balan added: 'Some activities are going on. There's a student event where Shukla will interact directly with students from across the country.
Second, the ameature radio technology on ISS, which will be leveraged. The science outreach activity Weigel mentions will be recorded and used extensively even post mission.'
Weigel said the Axiom-4 crew — Commander Peggy Whitson of the US, India's Shukla as pilot, and mission specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary — has already completed their ISS training at the Nasa Johnson Space Center last month, preparing them to conduct approximately 60 science investigations in partnership with the station national lab.
New Name For Dragon
Sudeesh Balan, project director, Isro, highlighted the rigorous preparation undertaken by the crew, explaining they have 'undergone a rigorous training mission specific nominal emergency procedures' and 'practiced in various simulators with periodic assessment on physical and psychological' aspects, said the mission has 'generated a lot of interest in India'
'...This opens up new domains associated with the human space programme including space medicine, physiology, biomedical instruments, training and microgravity experiments.
I hope that missions like Ax-4 would motivate our young minds to be passionate about space technology,' Balan said.
SpaceX
's director of Dragon mission management, Sarah Walker, provided technical details about the mission, noting it will utilise a brand-new Dragon spacecraft that will soon receive its nickname from the crew.
'This will mark SpaceX's 53rd Dragon mission, 15th
human spaceflight
mission to the ISS, and 48th trip to the station including both crew and cargo missions. The Falcon-9 booster supporting this launch previously carried Starlink satellites to orbit just weeks ago, demonstrating the rapid progress in rocket reusability,' Walker said.
She emphasised that 'human spaceflight is core to SpaceX's ultimate mission to make life multi-planetary and flying crew safely is always our top priority.'
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