New Delhi, Aug 21 IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on Thursday said that his mission to the International Space Station (ISS) -- a first ever by an Indian -- has achieved all technical objectives, and the results are very encouraging.
On June 26, Shukla became the first from the country to reach the orbiting lab. His 18-day stay aboard the ISS was packed with several experiments led by ISRO and other activities on the orbital lab.
Speaking at a press briefing in the national capital, Shukla called it the "mission of an entire nation".
"We have been able to achieve all our technical objectives,” Shukla said.
"We had seven different experiments, ranging from stem cell research to growing sprouts on the space station. Some of them started showing results while we were there. The results were very encouraging,” he said.
However, he noted that the data needs to be analysed carefully “to not jump to any conclusions”.
For this purpose, “all the experiments done on the space station were preserved and then frozen and have been brought back to Earth," Shukla said.
Shukla, who piloted the Axiom Space- Mission 4, to and fro along with NASA’s Peggy Whitson, described the feeling as “unbelievable”.
"Despite all the training, when you sit on that rocket and when that engine ignites, when they catch fire, it is a very different feeling. From that point of time till the time we splashed down, the experience has been unbelievable. It has been so exciting and so amazing that I really have been struggling to find words of how do I convey to you so that you live that through my words," Shukla said.
Sharing his key takeaways from the mission, Shukla said: “Witnessing and executing a human spaceflight mission like this gives you a lot of knowledge, a lot of information. And these are intangibles; you cannot measure them. You cannot just put everything on paper and write it down. The experience goes much beyond and much deeper than what you are documenting or putting in books".
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