Bengaluru: It was a proud moment not just for Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (call sign Shooks) but for the entire country as the first Indian piloted the Dragon spacecraft and docked ahead of the planned schedule into the International Space Station as a part of the Axiom-4 mission.
Shortly after the docking, Shukla thanked Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and director of the human spaceflight mission.
“Thank you, Peggy. I am number [Astronaut Number] 634, that’s a privilege (laughs). But, to be fair, it is a privilege to be among the few who have had a chance to see the earth from a vantage point that I have been able to see now,” he said.
Describing his experience on the spacecraft, Shukla did not hide his excitement when he said, “It has been a wonderful ride. It has been great. I was looking forward to coming to space. It is something to look forward to.”
He went on to say that the crew at the International Space Station made him feel at home.
“But the minute I entered the International Space Station… this crew (points at the Expedition-73 crew already aboard the ISS) made me feel so welcome. You opened the doors to your house for us. It was fantastic. I feel even better,” he said.
“Whatever expectations I had before coming here were surpassed by the view, of course — that’s a big part of it — but you guys as well. So, thank you so much,” he added.
He also expressed confidence that the coming days at the space station would be even more “amazing.’
“This was fantastic. This was wonderful and I am very confident that the next 14 days are going to be amazing, doing — as you said — advancing science and research and working together. Thank you so much,” the indian astronaut said.
The docking mission was commanded by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) crew, and they were accompanied by the Roscosmos-Russian Space Agency team from the ISS. The commercial space mission (Axiom-4) and the soft docking happened into the ISS at 4.01 pm.
The docking process was completed at 4.15 pm with the hard module. “Grace is Happy to on Harmony,” Whitson said after the docking was completed. The ISS was hovering over the North Atlantic at the time of the docking.
Communication and coordination between the Mission Control Houston ground station, ISS, and Dragon Spacecraft were constantly maintained to ensure that there was an unhindered docking. The viewpoints from the ISS were constantly maintained to ensure the docking process happened smoothly.
The ISS team guiding Shukla and Peggy directed Dragon, “Manual and repulsive retreat and breakout are not permitted.”
It reached 20 minutes away from the ISS at 3.57 pm IST. Zenith module of the ISS- Harmony Module was seen from Dragon at 3.58 pm IST, where the Dragon docked.
A few minutes after the docking a trouble shooter alert was sounded on the communication systems. The astronauts sought for at least five minutes before starting the hatch open procedures to continue their entry into the ISS to undertake the designed experiments and a 14-day stay at the ISS.
While this is Peggy’s second visit to the ISS, it is the first for Shukla and mission specialist astronauts- Stawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary.
