Indian Astronaut Will Pilot Mission To Space Station: Axiom Space

The crew will be led by America’s most experienced astronaut, Dr Peggy Annette Whitson.

New Delhi:

The ISRO-NASA joint astronaut mission, which will see an Indian travelling to the International Space Station for the first time, is expected to launch between April and June next year and the US-based company facilitating this, Axiom Space, hopes to see Indian rockets used in such missions in the future, a senior official from the company has said. 

Speaking exclusively to NDTV, Pearly Pandya, Director, International Government Business at Axiom Space, who is an Indian-American and was born in Ahmedabad, said the Chandrayaan-3 mission showed that India is emerging as a space superpower. She also shared details of the Axiom-4 mission, under which Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla will become only the second Indian astronaut in space after Rakesh Sharma in 1984. 

Ms Pandya said Shubhanshu Shukla will be the pilot for the mission that will take the team led by America’s most experienced astronaut, 64-year-old Dr Peggy Annette Whitson, to the International Space Station. Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, who is the backup for Group Captain Shukla, is also undergoing the same training, conducted by Axiom Space.  

“As an Indian-American, this mission has the ability to bridge two of my worlds but the Indian diaspora internationally as well. People are very excited to see India embark on its first mission on the International Space Station (ISS) and it is very exciting for us to have Group Captains Shukla and Nair training with us, it feels very surreal. Their training is going very well. They are learning a lot, they have to learn all the requirements of NASA but are also learning about operations on the ISS from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) side,” she said.

The Axiom official said the Indian astronauts, also known as Gaganyatris, are learning how to operate payloads and conduct scientific research in microgravity.

Ms Pandya said the commercial mission is an end-to-end one for Axiom and it takes care of astronaut training, medical operations and also helps conduct experiments. 

SpaceX Rocket, NASA Training

The Axiom official confirmed that the company will use the SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket and the Crew Dragon capsule in the mission.

She said the astronauts are being trained at NASA facilities like the Johnson Space Center and since Axiom is building the successor to the ISS, some demonstration modules from that are also being worked on. 

In the 10-14 day Axiom-4 mission, the astronauts will be conducting biomedical research, human health research, technology demonstrations and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) outreach, she added.

Indian Rockets?

The Axiom official said the company is looking for a longer collaboration with India. 

To a question on Indian rockets being used for missions to the probable successor to the ISS, which Axiom is building, she said, “I would love to see that. For us, it is important that the supply chain is global and diverse. I think the possibilities and the potential that India has is immense. The successes that we have seen with Chandrayaan-3 have demonstrated that India is emerging to be a space superpower and we are very excited to be a part of that story.” 

On India’s plan to have its own space station, Bharatiya Antariksha Station, by 2035, Ms Pandya said Axiom would be ready to support the country and would be happy to discuss interoperability, building a module, or even working on “space trade”, wherein each station has different capabilities. 

Mission Pilot

Ms Pandya said Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has been assigned the role of mission pilot, pending approval from the ISS multilateral panel.

On his role, Ms Pandya said, “Navigation… a lot of the crew dragon is autonomous but the pilot is able to understand a lot more of the emergency protocols, the docking protocols and have valuable insights into navigation. 

To a question on what Group Captain Nair’s role would be, she said, “He also undergoes a lot of the same training, and the intention is that two of India’s astronauts are prepared for human spaceflight in the future.”

Crew, Commander

The commander of the mission will be former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who now works for Axiom Space.

“The assigned commander is the most decorated Axiom astronaut, former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. She is an inspiration to so many women in the space sector and beyond,” Ms Pandya said. 

The other two crew members are Slawosz Uznanski from Poland, who is a European Space Agency astronaut and will be a mission specialist. Hungary’s Tibor Kapu will also have the same role.

Ms Pandya said she is also very excited about the statement by Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams, who is at the ISS, that she will be interacting with the Indian astronaut-designates when she returns to Earth. 

“That will play out the ISRO-NASA-Axiom space collaboration perfectly,” she said.

Cost

The Axiom official said the cost per seat on a commercial mission like this is in the “mid-$60 million” range. This is the amount ISRO is likely to have paid, but she did not go into details of whether the cost increases when there is a backup candidate as well.