
City school students thrilled to track splashdown live
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Kolkata: The return of the Crew Dragon Grace Spacecraft capsule, which made a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego, California, around 3.01 pm (IST) on Tuesday, brought excitement to the faces of students across the city.
Around 200 school students turned up at the Birla Industrial and Technological Museum (BITM) to witness the historic moment virtually as the return of the Axiom Mission 4 was live-streamed there.
As the clock ticked closer to the landing, the excitement was at its peak among the youngsters accompanied by their teachers. Raj Routh, a Class VI student of Mitra Institution (Main), said, "It is a happy moment for all Indians as Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and the crew touched down on the planet."
After 20 days since the launch on June 25 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and docking to the International Space Station (ISS) the next day, Shukla and the three crew members successfully completed the Axiom Mission 4.
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Shukla is the second Indian to have travelled to space and the first to have gone to the ISS. Holding the Indian national flag high, the students cheered "Jai Hind, Jai Bharat" as the crew made a splashdown, and the auditorium at BITM broke into applause.
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Another Class VIII student, Rudra Roy, said, "I am proud and happy that India could achieve the space mission. It is the first time that I am witnessing something like this, so my excitement knows no bounds."
Along with the screening of the splashdown, the BITM also arranged an open house quiz on spaceflight missions and an interactive science demonstration of rocket science of Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon Grace Spacecraft.
Teachers were equally thrilled to be there. Mitali Chakraborty Saha, a teacher, said, "The students are very happy to be here, to witness something like this together. It would be impossible to experience this at home as they would not be together."
Another teacher, Tuhina Chatterjee, showing similar enthusiasm, said that "we were eagerly looking forward to the crew's homecoming."
Arnab Chatterjee, director of BITM, said, "It is a moment of pride that Shukla has travelled to space 41 years after Rakesh Sharma's mission. We found excitement on the faces of the students who came for the live-streaming despite rain. This event not only aims at educating the kids about space science but also makes us believe that it may inspire some of these students to be astronauts in the days to come."
Four months ago, on March 18, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore also made a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida after being retrieved by the SpaceX Dragon capsule. The BITM live-streamed that event as well.
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