Our First Space Man

When IAF officer Sqn Ldr RAKESH SHARMA flew aboard a Soyuz T11 spacecraft on April 2, 1984, he became the first Indian to journey into space. He spent 7 days, 21 hours and 40 minutes aboard the Salyut 7 orbital station along with two Soviet astronauts, Yury Malyshev and Gennadi Strekalov. Now leading a retired life in the Nilgiris, Sharma, 69, is happy his record of being the only Indian in space will soon be broken if the ISRO mission succeeds. He describes the incredible experience in his own words:

- Raj Chengappa

IT was an immense relief to hear the prime minister announce that India will be sending a manned mission by 2022. I’ve been waiting for this kind of announcement for 34 years because we have not had a manned space programme since I went up. I am extremely thrilled that it has finally happened. People ask me whether I am bothered if my record will be broken, and I tell them, not at all, the more the merrier.

The Indian space programme is coming of age, in the sense that we have realised all the objectives that were set for us by the visionary Vikram Sarabhai. It is only natural for ISRO to challenge itself and go to the next level. In that sense, it is a continued effort and I think it is hugely exciting because we are at a point where, for the very first time, humanity is moving out of planet Earth with the stated objective of inhabiting other planets. If we are going to be a full-fledged player in this field, it is inevitable that we be a full on spacefaring nation.

Why continue with manned missions and not one with a robot? To begin with, I don’t think we will ever explore space with just robots. The human being has got exploration written into his DNA. If there is any exploration to be done, the human has to be a part of it. We are also not going there merely to find out the constituents of lunar soil, we are going there to settle. So, obviously, humans will have to get comfortable in that hostile environment. Also, the further you go, the more difficult it becomes to achieve the objectives of space remotely. One, there is delay in communication. Then, some decisions have to be taken on the spot, and you need humans to be part of the decisionmaking process. And till such time as sufficiently powerful computers can fully replicate the human brain’s potential and ability, we cannot be replaced.