Kolkata, June 25
As the Axiom 4 Mission was launched on Wednesday, former ISRO scientist Tapan Misra said that with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, at least one of India's pilots for the Gaganyaan mission will have an experience of going into space.
Speaking to ANI, scientist Tapan Misra affirmed that simulations cannot replace a real-life experience of going into space.
"We have trained four pilots for the Gaganyaan mission. They are trained on simulation in India and Russia. Now they got trained in simulators in the USA. You may try with every simulator, but there is no replacement for true flights. Like many people play video games, but they cannot fly aircraft. So, for this purpose, it was necessary that at least one of our pilots get exposure to a real-life scenario and a real operational spacecraft. And you have real experience of zero G (gravity) and last longer in this, and what are the difficulties in this," scientist Misra told ANI.
On preparation for Gaganyaan, he added, "ISRO has planned the Gaganyaan mission. Our engineers have not been exposed...Nobody will give you the technology, nobody will tell you the hows and whys of that. ISRO engineers, whatever they could visualize, with their imagination and experience, they made the provisions for both the pilots training...or spacecraft maneuverability...They may be 99% correct, but there may be 1% uncertainty which they may not have taken care of."
scientist Misra further said that Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla's experience will ensure that India's Ganganyaan mission will be safe.
"Shubanshu Shukla's flight... because he knows the facilities, operation sequences, and SoPs we made, now when he goes on the Dragon flight, he will have a real-life experience. There he will find the difference. Even if a small thing is missing, it can be plugged in our systems. This way it will ensure that our first flight, Gaganyaan, with a human, will be safe," he told ANI.
The Axiom 4 Mission launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 2:31 am Eastern Time (12 Noon IST) on Wednesday.
This is the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station. The crew is travelling to the orbiting laboratory on a new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. The targeted docking time is approximately 7 am Eastern Time (4 pm IST) on Thursday, June 26.
— ANI
Reader Comments
This is such a proud moment for India! 🇮🇳 Group Captain Shukla's experience will be invaluable for Gaganyaan. We're finally taking big steps in human spaceflight. Jai Hind!
While I appreciate ISRO's efforts, I hope we're not becoming too dependent on foreign collaborations. When will we have completely indigenous astronaut training facilities? Still, best wishes to Captain Shukla!
The comparison with video games is spot on! No matter how good simulations are, real experience is irreplaceable. This is why ISRO's approach makes sense - learn from others but develop our own capabilities.
As someone from Kolkata, I'm especially proud that scientist Misra is representing our city's scientific community in this discussion. Bengal has always contributed to India's scientific progress!
The 1% uncertainty factor mentioned is crucial. Space is unforgiving - even small oversights can be catastrophic. That's why this real-world experience is worth every rupee spent. Safety first!
I hope our media gives proper coverage to this mission. We celebrate cricket stars so much, but our scientists and astronauts deserve equal if not more recognition. #SpaceHeroes
This is the right approach - learn from international partners but develop our own systems. Remember how we did it with nuclear tech? One day we'll have fully Indian space missions from training to launch!
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