The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has prepared a 4,000-page document detailing the experience of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on the Axiom-4 mission, the training that he and fellow astronaut Prashant B Nair underwent, and the learnings of the ISRO team present in the US through the mission. ISRO chairman V Narayanan said these learnings would be applied for training astronauts for India’s Gaganyaan programme. They (the two astronauts) have gained a lot of confidence working with a very experienced team (SpaceX, NASA and Axiom). The entire training programme, going to space and coming back, the docking process, the microgravity environment that the bodies faced, everything has been documented. This will be very useful for our own astronauts, the current batch and subsequent ones,” said Narayanan. But the run-up to the mission was not all that smooth. Narayanan recounted the incident of a leakage in the rocket ahead of the launch, which the ISRO team insisted on being repaired. “.Probably, they thought that it was a minor leakage. When it came in the press, the first question asked was where the leak was. To our surprise, they could not find the location of the leak. We were shocked,” Narayanan said. He said that when the Axiom team was asked about the leak rate, they said it was confidential. “We were not comfortable. If it is a case of just a small hole it is not a problem, but if it is a crack that cannot be allowed. So, we insisted on a complete correction and they had to call off the launch. When they located it, it was a crack in the fuel line. During the test, the leak was increasing, the data is with us. If it (the rocket) lifts-off with a crack, what will happen is that with vibrations, it will give way. Then it will be a catastrophic situation,” he said. Talking about his experience in space, Shukla said that despite all the training, when the rockets finally took off, it felt very different. He said everything was a surprise in space, the biggest of which was utilising space in 3D. “You walk on the floor and sit on the seats. In space you can crawl on ceiling or the walls. This was a very unique experience. Initially, I gave things to people to hold, although I knew nothing would fall; it was a habit,” he said. He also spoke about sleeping in space through 16 sunrises and sunsets every day. He said GMT timing was followed on the space station and the windows were shuttered down when one had to sleep. “But it was so beautiful, I always wanted to sit by the window,” said Shukla. He said there was a craving for more Indian foods in space. “That’s what you really miss. You don’t really feel hungry. the food feels bland. I am very particular about my food, but when I came back I told my wife I will eat whatever you make. She said finally it took me going to space for it.” Shukla also spoke about his first view of the Earth. “It was a night pass. The darkness of the sea first and then the country completely lit up. There is no other place I would feel emotional about. I have seen India several times since, but that first view left its mark,” he said. Prashanth Nair, who was on the standby for the Axiom-4 mission, was asked whether he felt having missed out on this trip. He said the Air Force had taught him the importance of being a good wingman, and compared himself to being a “Laxman to Shukla’s Ram”. “It feels like Diwali today, and all our countrymen are here to receive us,” Nair said. He said the actual experience is very different from training. “Even if you write a PhD on the smell of roses, a person who has never smelled a rose will not know what it means after reading it entirely. Until you go to space you would not know what it means.”
