India is in space after 41 years !

1. What is news?

Indian Air Force pilot Shubhanshu Shukla has landed in International Space Station along with 3 other astronauts. The private mission named Axiom 4 successfully landed four astronauts in International Space Station. 

2. About Mission

1) Axiom Space is private space company. Axiom 4 mission is space mission of this private company and help will be provided from NASA and SPACE X for the mission. 

 

2) This mission is delayed number of times including when Liquid Oxygen is leaked from the rocket. The rocket of Space X Falcon 9 Block 5 is used for the mission.  [Liquid Oxygen in not fuel it is oxidizer which helps fuel to burn].

 

3) Four Astronauts are: India’s Shubhanshu Shukla, retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson (Now Axiom employee), Hungary’s Tibor kapu and Poland’s Slawosz Uznanski.

 

4) These 4 Astronauts successfully reached to International Space Station. 

India's Shubhanshu Shukla in Space

2. About Shubhanshu Shukla

1) He is from Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

 

2) He cleared UPSC NDA examination and subsequently been appointed as Flying Officer in the Air Force.

 

3) He has 2000 hours of flying experience. 

 

4) He is group captain in Air Force. Also, He is test pilot meaning he test flight newly entered jets in the air force.

 

5) He has also been selected as Gaganyatri for India’s Human Space Flight Programme also knowns as Gaganyan Mission.

 

6) He became 2nd Indian after Rakesh Sharma to go into space after 41 years. 

 

7) He has been selected as pilot for the mission. 

3. About International Space Station

1) International Space Station (ISS) is situated in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). LEO is at the height of 160-2000 km from the earth.

 

2) There are mainly 3 orbits i.e. LEO, Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary Orbit.  MEO lies at the height of 2000-35786 km from the earth. Global Positioning System (GPS) related satellites can be found here. 

 

3) Geostationary orbit is 35786 km above the equator. It is stationary because it orbits in the same direction and at the same speed as earth’s rotation.

 

4) ISS launched on 20 November 1998 in space. It is the program by 5 space agencies that is USA’s NASA, Russia’s ROSCOSMOS, Japan’s JAXA, Canada’s CSA and Europe’s ESA. 

 

5) ISS completes one round of the earth in 93 minutes. 

 

6) There are 2 parts of ISS: Russian Orbital Segment and United States Orbital Segment. Russian Orbital Segment is made by Russia whereas US Orbital Segment is jointly made by JAXA, ESA and NASA.

 

7) There are pressurizing modules in the ISS where Astronauts can live. 

 

8) Spaceships got docked or berthed to docking/berthing points on the ISS.

4. Importance of Axiom 4 for Gaganyan Mission

1) Gaganyan mission is announced in 2018 by our PM Narendra Modi.


2) We have chosen 3 Gaganyatris (additional 1 as backup pilot) to travel into space. ISRO’s LVM 3 rocket will be used for this mission.


3) Group Captain (GC) Ajit Krishnan, GC Angad Pratap, GC Shubhanshu Shukla and GC Prasanth Nair (who is backup pilot for Shubhanshu Shukla).


4) Axiom 4 mission will act as demo mission for India’s Gaganyan Mission. Shubhanshu Shukla will experience whole journey through Axiom 4 mission.


5) The experience of Shubhanshu Shukla will help immensely for our Gaganyan Mission. 


6) Also, some experiments will be carried in the space. For example, what is the effect on human muscle as in the space there is no weight effect in the space. 

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