India is all set for two big space missions over the next two months. The first will see Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in May. He will be part of the Axiom-4 mission, a collaboration between NASA and the private company Axiom Space.
This will make Shukla the second Indian to go to space after Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Shukla has undergone special training in both Russia and the United States in preparation for this mission.
Union Minister for Space, Jitendra Singh, confirmed the news on Friday. He said, “Group Captain Shukla’s journey is more than just a flight, it’s a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration.”
Following this historic trip, ISRO will launch NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), the world’s most expensive Earth observation satellite, in June. The $1.5 billion satellite is a joint mission between ISRO and NASA and will lift off from Indian soil on a GSLV Mk II rocket.
NISAR will track changes on Earth such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, earthquakes, and landslides. It will use two radar bands, L-band from NASA and S-band from ISRO, to capture changes on Earth’s surface with incredible precision, even down to less than a centimetre. Under their 2014 agreement, NASA is providing key parts like the L-band radar, while ISRO is supplying the satellite body and launch support.
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan also shared details about other upcoming missions. These include the PSLV-C61 mission, which will carry the EOS-09 satellite, designed to take high-resolution images of Earth even during cloudy weather and at night. Another key mission will be Test Vehicle-D2 (TV-D2), which will simulate an emergency escape and demonstrate the Gaganyaan crew escape system.
The crew module from this test will also be recovered from the sea, similar to how India’s first human space mission, Gaganyaan, is expected to carry out recoveries in the future.
Shukla’s time aboard the ISS will give India crucial experience in space operations, living in microgravity, and handling in-flight emergencies. This will directly support India’s future goal of sending astronauts to space under the Gaganyaan programme.
Inputs from TOI
This will make Shukla the second Indian to go to space after Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 1984. Shukla has undergone special training in both Russia and the United States in preparation for this mission.
Union Minister for Space, Jitendra Singh, confirmed the news on Friday. He said, “Group Captain Shukla’s journey is more than just a flight, it’s a signal that India is stepping boldly into a new era of space exploration.”
Following this historic trip, ISRO will launch NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), the world’s most expensive Earth observation satellite, in June. The $1.5 billion satellite is a joint mission between ISRO and NASA and will lift off from Indian soil on a GSLV Mk II rocket.
NISAR will track changes on Earth such as melting glaciers, rising sea levels, earthquakes, and landslides. It will use two radar bands, L-band from NASA and S-band from ISRO, to capture changes on Earth’s surface with incredible precision, even down to less than a centimetre. Under their 2014 agreement, NASA is providing key parts like the L-band radar, while ISRO is supplying the satellite body and launch support.
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan also shared details about other upcoming missions. These include the PSLV-C61 mission, which will carry the EOS-09 satellite, designed to take high-resolution images of Earth even during cloudy weather and at night. Another key mission will be Test Vehicle-D2 (TV-D2), which will simulate an emergency escape and demonstrate the Gaganyaan crew escape system.
The crew module from this test will also be recovered from the sea, similar to how India’s first human space mission, Gaganyaan, is expected to carry out recoveries in the future.
Shukla’s time aboard the ISS will give India crucial experience in space operations, living in microgravity, and handling in-flight emergencies. This will directly support India’s future goal of sending astronauts to space under the Gaganyaan programme.
Inputs from TOI
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