Billion Dreams, Tearful Moments & Pride: India's Shubhanshu Sharma Heads To Space With Axiom-4 Launch, See Pics
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The aircraft is carrying Shukla, who will be the pilot, along with Axiom-4 commander Peggy Whitson and mission specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu. (Image: X)
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Time of India
28 minutes ago
- Time of India
Watch Axiom-4 Dragon Crew Arrive & Hatch Open
Watch as India's Shubhanshu Shukla and the Axiom-4 crew dock with the International Space Station. Watch the live coverage of the Dragon capsule's arrival, hatch opening, and welcome ceremony.
India Gazette
30 minutes ago
- India Gazette
"Proud moment for India": CM Yogi congratulates Ax-4 Mission Pilot Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla
New Delhi [India], June 26 (ANI): Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday congratulated Axiom-4 Mission Pilot Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla on his achievement. In a post on X, CM Yogi also applauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his visionary leadership, which helped India participate in the international space mission and showcase an unwavering commitment to scientific advancement and global collaboration. 'A proud moment for India. Heartiest congratulations to Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the Mission Pilot of Axiom Mission 4, on this historic achievement. Under the visionary leadership of PM Modi, India's participation in this international space mission showcases our unwavering commitment to scientific advancement and global collaboration. Warm wishes for a successful mission ahead,' CM Yogi said on X. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying four Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew members, including Mission Pilot Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla, launched from Kennedy Space Centre at noon on Wednesday, Indian Standard Time (IST). It is orbiting Earth and on its way to the International Space Station. Dragon is also carrying Ax-4 Commander Peggy Whitson, and Mission Specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Tibor Kapu and will dock to the Harmony module's space-facing port at 4:30 pm IST today. NASA Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers will be on duty at the beginning of their shift, monitoring Dragon during its automated approach and rendezvous manoeuvres. After docking, the Ax-4 astronauts will greet the seven Expedition 73 crewmates, call down to Earth for welcoming remarks, then participate in a safety briefing with the station residents. Meanwhile, McClain and Ayers, along with the rest of the station crew, worked a normal shift on Wednesday, keeping up with microgravity research and lab maintenance. For Group Captain Shukla, this will be an opportunity to emulate fellow Indian Air Force Officer Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on 3 April 1984 as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme. Sharma spent seven days in space on board the Salyut 7 space station. In his remarks from onboard the Dragon spacecraft, Shukla said, 'Namaskar, my dear countrymen, what a ride. We are back in the space once again after 41 years. It's an amazing ride. We are revolving around the Earth at a speed of 7.5 kilometres per second. The Tiranga embossed on my shoulders tells me I am with you all. This journey of mine is not a beginning to the International Space Station (ISS) but to India's Human Space Programme. I want all of you to be part of this journey. Your chest, too, should swell with pride. You all also show excitement. Together, let's initiate India's Human Space Programme. Jai Hind! Jai Bharat!' (ANI)
The Hindu
41 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Why does the Axiom-4 mission need 28 hours to reach the ISS?
At 12.01 pm IST on June 25, a crew capsule containing four astronauts, including India's Group Capt. Shubhanshu Shukla on his first spaceflight, lifted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's spaceport in Florida. The lift-off marked the start of the long-awaited Axiom-4 mission. The launch was smooth. By the time the rocket's two stages had completed their work, the crew capsule — called Dragon — was travelling at several thousand kilometres per hour. The capsule's destination was the International Space Station (ISS), which is orbiting the earth at roughly 400 km above sea level. At the time of lift-off, Axiom Space, the company orchestrating this mission, said Dragon would dock with the ISS in 28 hours. Why does a spacecraft travelling so fast need 28 hours to reach a place that's little more than the distance between Chennai and Bengaluru away? It helps to picture the capsule and the ISS as two race-cars on separate lanes of the same track — rather than as a car trying to drive straight up to a spot 400 km ahead. Everything happens sideways around the earth, and the choreography is dictated by orbital mechanics and strict safety rules. To share the ISS's lane, the capsule needs to match both its altitude and its velocity vector. This is achieved using raw speed as well as timing. Rather than impart energy to the crew capsule in a radially outward direction, it's mostly sideways. Going straight up 400 km would leave Dragon with virtually zero sideways speed, causing it to fall back almost immediately — like a ball that has been thrown up. The Falcon 9 rocket will have vaulted Dragon into a low, slightly elliptical parking orbit about 200 km high. Its speed there is around 27,000 km/hr, which the capsule maintains just to avoid spiralling back down towards the ground. The ISS is also higher than this parking orbit, at around 400 km, and therefore circles the earth a little more slowly to avoid spiralling down. While the ISS takes around 92 minutes to go around the earth once, Dragon starts by taking around 88 minutes. Thus, by being lower than the ISS, Dragon slowly falls behind in its orbit until it has caught up with the ISS. After its system check-outs, the Dragon capsule will perform a series of small thruster burns, a.k.a. phasing burns, to first raise its apogee (the point in its elliptical orbit where Dragon is farthest from the earth) and then its whole orbit. Each of these burns is timed such that after completing several orbits, Dragon ends up being exactly where the ISS will be. This is somewhat like merging into a highway at the right exit rather than steering straight towards another car. For the Axiom-4 mission, the mission planners designed a pre-docking profile that lasted about 28 hours, or about 18 orbits. At the end of this profile, the Dragon crew capsule would be on the correct side of the ISS, where a free docking port is located, and at a time when the ISS crew is awake. Once Dragon comes within 30 km or so of the ISS, it will move itself to a 'corridor' aligned with the ISS. From here, the rules require the capsule to move at no more than a few metres per second. Once it's within 20 m of the ISS, Dragon will have to slow to a few centimetres per second. There are holding points at 400 m, 220 m, 20 m, and 1 m from the ISS, where the Dragon crew, including Group Capt. Shukla — who is the designated mission pilot — will have to perform GO/NO-GO polls and LIDAR checks. Even if there is one wrong sensor reading in this process, Dragon will be required to retreat from the ISS along a pre-programmed path. This deliberate pacing alone adds several hours to the crew capsule's approach towards the ISS. The fact that Axiom Space and NASA used SpaceX's Dragon crew capsule for this mission is important. It allowed the mission operators to opt for a more conservative, fuel-rich profile that also allows the crew to finish check-outs, eat, and sleep before the intense docking exercise.
