Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla dials ISRO officials from International Space Station

Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom-4 mission, had a telephonic conversation with ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan and senior officials of the space agency.

The conversation took place on July 6. During the call, Dr. Narayanan expressed keen interest in Group Captain Shukla’s well-being, and inquired about the various scientific experiments and activities being conducted on the ISS.

The Chairman emphasised the significance of documenting all experiments and activities meticulously after Group Captain Shukla’s return to Earth, as this will provide valuable insights and inputs for the development of India’s human spaceflight program, Gaganyaan.

The Gaganyaan program aims to demonstrate India’s capability to launch a crewed spacecraft into low Earth orbit, and the experience and knowledge gained from this mission will be crucial for its success.

Group Captain Shukla’s ISS mission has been executed under the ISRO-Axiom Spaceflight agreement.

Other participants in the discussion included Dr. Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) and Chairman of the Program Management Council for Human Space Programme, M. Mohan, Director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Padmakumar E S, Director of ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU), M. Ganesh Pillai, Scientific Secretary of ISRO, and N Vedachalam, former Director of LPSC.

These officials too had the opportunity to interact with Group Captain Shukla during the call, discussing various aspects of the mission and the experiments being conducted.

ISRO said that the Indian astronaut expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing him this incredible opportunity to represent India on the ISS. He acknowledged the efforts of Chairman and the team at ISRO in ensuring his safe travel to the ISS.

He shared updates on the progress of the experiments and activities being carried out at the space station, highlighting the scientific objectives and the challenges being addressed.