Space: “Namaste,” Shukla greets Earth before docking at the ISS
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: “I am getting used to it quite well. I am enjoying the views, enjoying the experience, and learning like a baby. Learning the new steps, learning how to walk, learning how to control yourself, learning how to eat. It’s just so exciting,” said India’s second astronaut, Shubhanshu Shukla, as he greeted the people from his capsule just before reaching the International Space Station (ISS), after a 28-hour travel through extraterrestrial space.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew, including Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, successfully docked at the ISS at 4.30 PM on Thursday, the media reported.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Shukla, the mission pilot, and other crew members on Wednesday, wishing them a safe and happy journey.
Dragon is also carrying Ax-4 Commander Peggy Whitson, and Mission Specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Tibor Kapu, who all docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing port.
Shukla, 39, the second Indian in space after Rakesh Sharma, called it a proud moment for India’s space programme.
He said he was learning to live in microgravity conditions “like a baby” and it was an amazing experience to float in vacuum as the Dragon spacecraft circled Earth in its journey to dock at the ISS.
Before reaching there, he greeted the people with a ‘Namaskar from space,’ from inside the Dragon spacecraft.
Sharing his experience via a video-link from the spacecraft, he said after remaining in quarantine for 30 days, where he was far away from all the excitement, ahead of the launch of the Axiom-4 mission on Wednesday, “the only thought in my mind was to let us just go.”
Shukla and three other astronauts lifted off on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, USA, on board the Dragon spacecraft, powered by the Falcon-9 rocket for a 14-day stay at the ISS.
“Wow, what a ride it was. Frankly, when I was sitting in the capsule Grace, yesterday on the launchpad, the only thought in my mind was let’s just go. After 30 days of quarantine, it was a feeling that I just wanted to go. Excitement and all was very far away. There was just this feeling that let us just leave,” Shukla said.
The new Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX has been named Grace by the astronauts.
He also introduced ‘Joy’, a toy swan that is the zero-gravity indicator, and the fifth “crew member” on the Axiom-4 mission.
Sharing his experience of encountering the gravitational force during the launch, Shukla said he felt like being pushed back in his seat.
“But when the ride started, it was something. You were getting pushed back in the seat. It was an amazing ride and then suddenly nothing. Everything was silent and you were just floating. You were unbuckled and just floating in the silence of vacuum,” he said.
Shukla said the first few moments after they got shot into the vacuum did not feel that great, but soon it was “an amazing feeling.”
His fellow astronauts have told him that he has been sleeping a lot since the launch on Wednesday, he said.
“It is a new environment, a new challenge and I am really enjoying this experience with my fellow astronauts here. It is good to make mistakes, but it is better to see somebody else do that too. So, it has been a fun time,” Shukla said.
For Shukla, this will be an opportunity to emulate fellow IAF Officer Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 3, 1984, as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme. Sharma spent seven days in space on board the Salyut 7 space station.
