ISRO Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla returned to the Earth with a splashdown off the coast of California yesterday, after which the SpaceX Dragon ‘Grace’ was hoisted on to the recovery ship Shannon.
Shukla, the pilot of the mission along with Commander Peggy Whitson, America’s most experienced astronaut, as well as Mission Specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary were transported to the mainland in a helicopter.
Minister of State for Space, Jitendra Singh said at a presser, “One of Mother India’s illustrious sons is back. India has found a lasting space in the world of space.”
Singh revealed additional details of the next steps. The crew of the Axiom 4 mission will now remain in quarantine till July 23, to complete the medical and readaptation procedures. The structured post-mission medical evaluation and recovery protocols are being conducted under the supervision of Axiom Space as well as ISRO flight surgeons.
The programme spans a week, and includes cardiovascular assessments, musculoskeletal tests, and psychological debriefs aimed at complete psychological recovery and data capture for future missions.
The inputs from Shukla will be valuable not just for ISRO’s ambitious Gaganyaan programme and assembly of the Bharatiya Antariksh Station, but will also help Axiom Space that is planning to transition to its own private orbital complex.
After the quarantine period, there will be discussions with ISRO, along with debriefings with Axiom Space, the operator of the commercial flight, and NASA, the hosts of the mission.
A dedicated high-level delegation and Mission Operations Team has been deployed at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, led by ISRO Chairman V Narayanan. This team was embedded along side NASA and Axiom Space flight controllers during the course of the mission, and participated in realtime-decision making, health monitoring, telemetry tracking and crew timeline management. Shukla has completed all of the planned microgravity research work.
Singh added, “This is not just a scientific mission, it is a reflection of India’s role as a trusted partner in the shared journey of humanity.” Singh indicated that Shukla would return to India around August 17 after completing the post-missions protocols and discussions with the officials in the United States.