India celebrates sending its first astronaut into space after 41 years

The jubilant Indians celebrated the successful launch of the Axiom-4 mission (AX-4) which took off with a team from several countries, including an Indian astronaut.

Group captain Shubhanshu ShuklaWho pilots the mission has only become the second Indian to go to space.

In just over 26 hours – when the spacecraft welcomes the International Space Station (ISS) – the captain of the Shukla group will become the first Indian to visit the NASA orbit laboratory.

His trip comes 41 years after the Cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian to go to the space aboard a Russian Soyuz in 1984.

Directed by the former NASA PEGGY Whitson astronaut – a veteran of the space which was commander of ISS twice, spent more than 675 days in space and made 10 space walks – AX -4 was removed from the Kennedy Space Center of NASA in Florida at 02:31 Edt, (06:31 GMT; 12:01 Time India) on Wednesday.

The trip to ISS on AX -4 – A commercial flight operated by the private company based in Houston Axiom Space – is a collaboration between NASA, the Indian space agency isro, the European space agency (ESA) and SpaceX.

His team of four members also includes Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. They will also bring their country back into space after more than four decades. The astronauts spent weeks in quarantine before the launch of Wednesday.

The flight has aroused enormous interest in India with Isro saying that the experienced group, Captain Shukla, will win during his trip at ISS will enormously help his efforts.

The 39 -year -old man was among the four Indian Air Force officers preselected last year to travel on the very first human space flight in the country, planned for 2027. India has also announced ambitious plans to create a space station by 2035 and send a astronaut to the moon by 2040.

ISRO, which has carried out a number of tests to prepare to go to space, paid 5 billion rupees ($ 59 million; £ 43 million) to guarantee a seat for the Shukla group captain on AX-4 and its training.

A few minutes after takeoff, the captain of the Shukla group had a message for India.

“We are back in space after 41 years and what incredible race is,” he said.

“Right now, we are orbiting the earth at a speed of 7.5 km per second. On my shoulder, I wear the Indian flag. This is not the start of my trip to the ISS, it is the beginning of the human space flight from India. I welcome all my Indian colleagues to be part of this trip and be proud and excited.”

The launch, using the Dragon Spacex Crew capsule on a Falcon 9 rocket, was broadcast live by Axiom Space and Nasa and triggered celebrations in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed The successful launch and said that the Indian astronaut “takes away with him the wishes, hopes and aspirations of 1.4 billion Indians”.

In the hometown of the Captain Shukla group of Lucknow, his parents joined hundreds of students to watch the takeoff. They were greeted by a music group when they arrived at school and were seen by applauding while the rocket was triggered.

Born October 10, 1985 in the city in the north of Lucknow, the captain of the Shukla group joined the Indian Air Force as a fighter pilot in 2006.

He piloted Migs, Sukhois, Dorniers, Jaguars and Hawks and has more than 2,000 hours of flight experience.

Describing the last year as “nothing less than the transformer”, the captain of the Shukla group recently told an online press conference that he had no words to describe his excitement.

“It was an incredible trip so far, but the best is to come,” he said.

“While I go to space, I carry not only instruments and equipment, I have hopes and dreams of a billion hearts.

“I ask all the Indians to pray for the success of our mission,” he added.

In addition to piloting the mission, the Indian astronaut will have a scheduled schedule during his two weeks on the ISS.

Given the enormous interest in theft, ISRO said they were organizing events to interact with Indian students and answered their questions while floating in space. An interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also on the cards.

But most of the time, the crew of four members will conduct 60 scientific experiences, seven from which come from India.

The former scientist of NASA, Mila Mitra, says that ISRO’s experiences will help improve our understanding of space and its effects on biology and micro-gravity.

One of the main experiences, she explains, will study the impact of the space flight on six varieties of culture seeds.

Another isro experience is to cultivate three microalgae strains that could be used as food, fuel or even in life support systems, which will help identify the most suitable for microgravity growth, she says.

The ISRO projects will also investigate how Tardigrades – Micro -Animals on Earth which can survive extreme environments – would be in space.

Other experiments aim to identify how muscle loss occurs in space and how it can be treated; and the physical and cognitive impact of the use of computer screens in microgravity.