iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
An Indian Air Force Wing Commander has been selected as the prime astronaut for the upcoming Indo-US mission to the International Space Station (ISS), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced.
The IAF Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla has been selected by a National Mission Assignment Board as the prime candidate and Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair as his backup. “The assigned crewmembers will be finally approved to fly to the International Space Station by the Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP),” the ISRO said in a statement.
A joint statement signed between India and the US during the official state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2023 initiated a joint ISRO-NASA effort to the ISS. The Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) of ISRO has entered into a Space Flight Agreement (SFA) with NASA-identified service provider Axiom Space Inc, USA for its upcoming Axiom-4 mission to the ISS, the Indian space agency said.
During the mission, Shukla will undertake selected scientific research and technology demonstration experiments onboard the ISS and engage in space outreach activities. The experiences gained during this mission will be beneficial for the Indian Human Space Program and it will also strengthen human space flight cooperation between ISRO and NASA.
Shambhu Dayal Shukla, the father of Indian Air Force Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla, said: “I wish this mission to be successful. I always pray to God that Shubhanshu achieves success. When we got the news, nothing could match the moment and when the PM gave him the badge, we will never forget that moment.”
“We are happy, but we also feel nervous when we hear about space missions. My son is now being trained in the US. He has been brilliant since childhood and does hard work,” Usha Shukla said.
Shukla is also part of the Gaganyaan mission, India’s first human space flight program, which will showcase human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bringing them back safely to Earth, by landing in the Indian sea waters. Extensive preparations for this mission are underway at various ISRO centers.
In February this year, PM Modi announced the names of the four chosen Indian Air Force pilots; Group Captain Prashanth Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap, and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla who would be part of India’s first human space flight program. It is slated to be launched in 2024-25. The four astronauts were trained at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia.
The pre-requisites for the Gaganyaan mission include the development of many critical technologies including a launch vehicle for carrying the crew safely to space, a Life Support System to provide an earth-like environment to the crew in space, crew emergency escape provision and evolving crew management aspects for training, recovery and rehabilitation of crew.
Various precursor missions have been planned to demonstrate the Technology Preparedness Levels before carrying out the actual Human Space Flight mission. These demonstrator missions include Integrated Air Drop Test (IADT), Pad Abort Test (PAT), and Test Vehicle (TV) flights. The safety and reliability of all systems will be tested through unmanned missions preceding manned missions. LVM3 rocket – the heavy-lift launcher of ISRO has been identified as the launch vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission.
