NEW DELHI: India is considering establishing its own Bharat Antariksh Space Station, modelled after the International Space Station, astronaut Captain Shubhanshu Shukla said on Friday.
In his first media interaction following successful completion of the International Space Station (ISS) mission, Shukla expressed his gratitude to the Indian government and the ISRO team for facilitating the Axiom-4 mission.
“Bharat aaj bhi antariksh se saare jahaan se achha dikhta hai (Even today, India looks the most beautiful from space). Jai Hind, Jai Bharat,” he said.
Shukla docked at the ISS on June 26 and returned to Earth on July 15. He flew aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. During his stay, he interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, school students, and the ISRO chairman.
After undocking and splashdown, Shukla underwent rehabilitation from July 15-22, followed by mission debriefing from August 1-13. He returned to India on August 17.
Meanwhile, ISRO played a key role in the ISS mission by detecting a timely oxygen leak, which delayed the mission and ultimately prevented a potential disaster. The mission was initially targeted for June 11, but ISRO detected the fault on June 10, leading to the delay.
“ISRO’s technical expertise played a vital role in ensuring the safe launch of the mission by addressing the liquid oxygen leakage observed in the first stage of the Falcon-9 rocket, avoiding a catastrophic failure,” said Dr V Narayana, ISRO chairman, adding, “I am proud to say that the ISRO team saved four astronauts.”
The ISRO chief emphasised that the learnings from the ISS mission, operating procedures and technical protocols, would assist in the launch of the Gaganyaan and Bhartiya Antariksha Station programmes.
During his time at the ISS, Shukla conducted seven microgravity experiments focused on human health, space biotechnology, space agriculture, cognitive science, astronaut nutrition, space biology, and bioregenerative life support systems. “This research is going to provide a vast wealth of data for Indian science and research,” he remarked.