Indian astronauts only ones trained in both US and Russia: Shubhanshu Shukla

Mint

7 hours ago

New Delhi: Indian astronauts will have an edge in their preparation for the country's human spaceflight programme, as they have trained in both Russian and American technologies, said Shubhanshu Shukla, group captain of the Indian Air Force and the first Indian to set foot on the International Space Station (ISS).
Speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday, Shukla said that the prolonged training phase has seen Shukla and his three compatriots—Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan and Angad Pratap—travel across, Moscow, Bengaluru and Florida to get access to training experiences for spaceflight in American firm SpaceX's Crew Dragon, as well as Russian space agency Roscosmos' Soyuz human-qualified space vehicles.
'This gives us in India a distinct technical advantage in terms of being prepared for a wide variety of circumstances, engineering and technologies, once we take off for space in the designated timeline of stepping on the moon by 2040,' Shukla said.
The press conference, also addressed by Jitendra Singh, Union minister for space, and V. Narayanan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), came days before India geared up to celebrate its second national space day, commemorating two years of Isro's lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, landing on the moon.
Shukla said that the mission also prepared him for both scientific experiences and the physical rigour that is inevitable with space travel. 'When I first interacted with my countrymen from the ISS, many of you would have seen that I looked visibly different at that point. The first three days in space can be uncomfortable, but then your body adjusts—and the same holds true for when you land back and face the impact of gravity. These are aspects that you can't experience during training on the ground,' he added.
Adding to Shukla's statement, Singh said that India's space associations with other nations is a sign of 'increasing confidence that the world has on India's innovation.'
'For the first time in history, India's space technologies are now meeting global scientific benchmarks. This gives India unprecedented global influence, and shows evidence that more and more countries are now trusting India to collaborate upon space technologies. India's biggest strength has been the ability of conducting major scientific projects with frugality, and all things taken together, we now stand at a juncture from where India's private space economy can grow 5 times in less than a decade,' the minister said.
Giving an example of this, Narayanan said that Isro played a crucial role in detecting a leak in Crew Dragon, the launch vehicle used by Shukla's Axiom-4 space mission, which took off after several delays on 25 June and returned safely to earth on 15 July.
The Isro chief also added that nearly 80% of all technical tests for India to prepare for its Gaganyaan series of manned space missions have been completed. By the end of the current fiscal year, Isro aims to complete the remaining tests as well. The first unmanned trial of Gaganyaan, which would fly to space with a humanoid robot laden with sensors onboard, is expected to happen before the end of this calendar year.
However, amid talks of preparation for India's own manned space mission, Shukla refused to reveal a 'surprise' that he left aboard the ISS for Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian in space. 'It will be revealed in due time, in the presence of Wing Commander Sharma,' Shukla said.