New Delhi: Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla Friday said he and fellow astronauts on the International Space Station relished ‘aam ras’, ‘gajar ka halwa’, ‘moong dal halwa’ and delicacies from other countries as he completed a week on board the orbital lab.
Shukla, who docked at the ISS on June 26 as part of the Axiom-4 mission, completed a week on the ISS and got a day off, which he spent connecting with family and friends back on Earth.
The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) crew, which includes Shukla and three other astronauts, completed 113 orbits around the Earth by the end of July 3, clocking over 4.66 million km, which is equivalent to nearly 12 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
“It was a good moment. We got food from different countries and got to share it with all the crew,” Shukla, who has the call sign ‘Shux’, said in a brief interaction with scientists at the URSC, Bengaluru over a HAM radio connection.
On Thursday, Shukla also became the Indian astronaut with the longest stay in space, surpassing the record of his mentor Rakesh Sharma, who spent seven days, 21 hours and 40 minutes in space as part of the Soviet Interkosmos programme in 1984. As of Thursday, Shukla has spent nine days in space.
He said the most exciting part of the mission was looking back at Earth from the vantage point of the International Space Station.
Shukla said working with people from different countries too was an exciting experience.
Sharing his experience of the launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, Shukla said, “The rocket launch was very dynamic, it was very fast. As you go higher, you go faster and the accelerations were quite high.”
The Axiom-4 mission has veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson as commander, Shukla as pilot, Polish astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu as mission specialists.
An Axiom Space statement said that in just seven days, the Ax-4 astronauts have already made significant contributions to scientific research.
“Peggy has been involved in cancer research using microgravity to study how tumour cells behave in space, work that is helping develop new therapeutic targets for metastatic cancers,” the Axiom Space statement said.
“Shux has been conducting experiments that explore how microgravity affects the growth and genetic behaviour of algae and how tardigrades, hardy microscopic creatures, survive and reproduce in space,” it said.
The findings of the experiments conducted by Shukla could reveal new insights into the molecular mechanisms of cellular resilience, which could translate into clinically relevant knowledge on Earth.
“A proud moment for India as our Indian Air Force officer becomes the first Indian military astronaut to board the InternationalSpaceStation (ISS) as part of AxiomMission4: First Indian in space after 40 years, Leading seven India-specific scientific experiments, representing India in over 60 global studies on Biology, Earth science & Material science,” Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said in a post on X.
“This milestone marks the resurgence of India’s human spaceflight journey under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi,” Singh said.
During his amateur radio interaction, Shukla said global collaboration was the key to the success of a mission like the International Space Station.
“Agencies like NASA, ISRO, SpaceX, Axiom, ESA, JAXA, everyone is coming together to make this mission successful. I realise the power of global collaboration for making such missions happen. So, definitely global collaboration is the key,” Shukla said.
Shukla is on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station as part of a joint ISRO-NASA project.
PTI
