'Learning like a baby': Shubhanshu Shukla goes live from Dragon spacecraft

As the Dragon spacecraft orbited Earth on its way to dock with the International Space Station (ISS), Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla on Thursday described the experience as “amazing,” saying he was “learning to live in microgravity like a baby.”

After multiple delays, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully lifted off on Wednesday from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying Shukla and three other astronauts to the ISS. The launch occurred at 12:01 pm IST, with the mission expected to dock at the station after a 28-hour journey.

“Namaskar from space!” Shukla said in a live webcast, flashing a smile and a floating wave as he addressed viewers watching back on Earth.

“Wow, what a ride it was. Frankly, when I was sitting in the capsule Grace, yesterday on the launchpad, the only thought in my mind was let's just go. After 30 days of quarantine, it was a feeling that I just wanted to go. Excitement and all was very far away. There was just this feeling that let us just leave,” he said.

The new Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX has been named Grace by the astronauts.

He also introduced ‘Joy', a toy swan that is the zero gravity indicator, and the fifth "crew member" on the Axiom-4 mission.

Shukla, whose crew includes former NASA astronaut and mission commander Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, shared his experience of encountering the gravitational force during the launch.

“But when the ride started, it was something. You were getting pushed back in the seat. It was an amazing ride and then suddenly nothing. Everything was silent and you were just floating. You were unbuckled and just floating in the silence of vacuum,” he said.

Shukla said the first few moments after they got shot into the vacuum did not feel that great, but soon it was “an amazing feeling”. He added that his fellow astronauts have told him that he has been sleeping a lot since the launch on Wednesday.

“I am getting used to it quite well. I am enjoying the views, enjoying the experience and learning like a baby. Learning the new steps, learning how to walk, learning how to control yourself, learning how to eat. It's just so exciting,” he said, describing the disorienting but thrilling experience of microgravity.

Shukla, the first Indian to travel to the International Space Station, underscored the broader significance of his journey.

“This is a small step, but a steady and solid step towards India’s human space programme,” he said.

His journey comes nearly 41 years after Rakesh Sharma’s landmark 1984 mission aboard the Soviet Union’s Salyut-7 space station, which marked India’s first human spaceflight.

“It is a new environment, a new challenge and I am really enjoying this experience with my fellow astronauts here. It is good to make mistakes, but it is better to see somebody else do that too. So it has been a fun time,” Shukla said.

The Axiom-4 mission carries around 60 scientific studies representing 31 countries, underscoring its global collaborative nature. It highlights international cooperation and advances microgravity research in low-Earth orbit. — with PTI