Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, who is likely to return to Earth on Monday, after his two-week-long space expedition onboard the International Space Station (ISS), evoked fellow astronaut Rakesh Sharma’s line and remarked, “India still looks ‘saare Jahan se achcha’.” Sharma, the first Indian who travelled to space, had made the remark during his 1984 space Odyssey mission.
Mentioning his journey during Axiom-4 mission farewell ceremony, Shukla said it has been an incredible one and almost magical.
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The undocking of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the station’s Harmony module is scheduled for approximately 7.05 am EDT (4.35 pm IST) Monday. The splashdown off the coast of California, US, is expected at 5.30 am EDT (3 PM IST) on Tuesday.
Shukla and his fellow Axiom-4 astronauts have spent around two weeks on the orbital lab. Former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, ESA (European Space Agency) astronauts Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary are part of the Axiom-4 mission.
The Axiom-4 mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre at Florida on June 25 and the Dragon spacecraft docked at the International Space Station on June 26 after a 28-hour journey.
Rakesh Sharma’s voyage
Sharma’s voyage was a part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme which sent 17 non-Soviet cosmonauts to space between 1978 and 1991. Rakesh Sharma went to space at a time when India’s own space programme was in its infancy, and the ISRO was decades away from even contemplating sending an Indian to space.
Shukla’s stay onboard ISS
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Shukla, originally selected to go to space on India’s Gaganyaan programme, also captured images for the crop seed experiment, involving the study of six seed varieties that will be grown over multiple generations upon return to Earth. This experiment proposes to identify plants which are suitable for performing genetic analysis and explore the possibilities of cultivation in space.
During their stay at the ISS, the four-membered crew have jointly continued to gather data for a range of scientific knowledge gathering exercises. This included measuring radiation exposure using the Rad Nano Dosimeter useful for assessing the safety of the astronauts, particularly those involved in long missions aboard the ISS ; tests performed to improve the understanding of mental and heart health while in space ; the human body’s adaptability capabilities to the space environment and heat transfer in microgravity through clothing. In addition, a neuromuscular electrical stimulation session was measured to explore the potential interventions to counter the muscles loss under microgravity conditions.
