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Gujarat engineer claims he got connected to astronauts aboard SpaceX capsule: Report
A qualified engineer, Saiyadh told the Ahmedabad Mirror that the experience “felt personal” as he got a response from astronaut Doug Hurley when he got connected.
An engineer from Ahmedabad has claimed he got connected with SpaceX’s maiden manned spaceflight carrying two NASA astronauts into orbit.
Adhir Saiyadh, a ham radio enthusiast, claims he got a response from the Crew Dragon astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken while trying to connect with the International Space Station, reports news agency ANI.
“I was on video call with a student explaining how to connect to ISS. It was then that I got a response,” the 58-year-old Ahmedabad resident told ANI.
According to another report in Ahmedabad Mirror, Saiyadh got connected around the time the astronauts were giving the viewers of NASA TV an interactive tour of the cockpit.
“I was on video call with a friend from Valsad, explaining to him the features of a mobile application that helps track ISS. He asked me if we can connect with ISS. I realised that the capsule was to pass over India around then and I decided to try my luck. I coincidentally got connected to their frequency and received a response from one of the commandants of the capsule,” Saiyadh told the Ahmedabad Mirror.
A qualified engineer, Saiyadh told the publication that the experience “felt personal” as he got a response from astronaut Doug Hurley when he got connected.
He added that the call made him feel that he too, “was a part of the history they made.”
In a first of its kind spaceflight, entrepreneur Elon Musk’s company SpaceX became the first private entity to carry NASA astronauts into orbit. A Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket, both developed by SpaceX, with Hurley and Behnken, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3.22 pm EDT on May 30 and docked with the ISS around 19 hours later.
The SpaceX’s Crew Dragon flight was also the first time in 11 years that NASA astronauts were launched into space in an American space vehicle and from US soil.
