MUMBAI: Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday as SpaceX’s Dragon capsule Grace carrying a four-member international crew completed docking with the space-facing port of the space station’s Harmony module.
“Grace is happy to be on Harmony,” said commander Peggy Whitson, nearly 28 hours after the private Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission lifted off to space.
Grace was ahead of schedule. It was earlier scheduled to achieve soft docking at 4.30pm (IST), which was accomplished at 4.02pm (IST) before completing the overall docking procedure.
After docking, it took two hours before the Dragon hatch was opened. The crew were then welcomed by Expedition 73 on ISS.
{{/usCountry}}After docking, it took two hours before the Dragon hatch was opened. The crew were then welcomed by Expedition 73 on ISS.
{{/usCountry}}The Ax-4 crew comprising Whitson, Shukla representing the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary lifted off at 12:01pm (IST) on Wednesday, on the SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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On ISS, Shukla will undertake seven homegrown microgravity experiments proposed by various national R&D laboratories and academic institutions, ranging from studying the impact of microgravity radiation in the ISS on edible microalgae, sprouting salad seeds in space, analysing human interaction with electronic displays in microgravity to impact of microgravity on growth and yield parameters in food crop seeds. Additionally, he will also undertake five Isro-NASA collaborative experiments.
During the 14-day mission, the Ax-4 crew is set to conduct 60 science experiments representing 31 countries, including the US, India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations across Europe. Axiom Space said this is the largest quantity of research that will be undertaken on any Axiom mission.