ACING SPACE

As India prepares for Gaganyaan, THE WEEK speaks to a NASA astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut for an in-depth understanding of the making of a space traveller

- ABHINAV SINGH

MULTIPLE THRUSTER MALFUNCTIONS. Helium leaks. In the context of a space mission, all that sounds rather alarming. But, not for experienced astronauts. American astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry 'Butch' Wilmore arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in June after "managing" such issues. The two former Navy officers recently completed six months in space on a mission originally intended to be for a week, after their capsule was deemed unsafe to return them to earth. The duo's return is now scheduled for February 2025. Eight months of extended stay in space (NASA does not like 'stranded' or 'stuck'), even with enough supplies, may seem like an unwelcome prospect for the uninitiated, but astronauts, evidently, are built different.

"Living in space is super fun," Williams told students from the Sunita L Williams Elementary School in Needham, Massachusetts-her hometown on December 4. Her mission partner sees it as just being on "a different path".

As NASA administrator Bill Nelson put it in the wake of the duo's extended stay: "Space flight is risky, even at its safest and even at its most routine, and a test flight by nature is neither safe nor routine for a variety of potential landing scenarios, such as mountains, forests, marshes, deserts, arctic and maritime. The gaganauts have completed 13 months of intensive training at the centre and multiple stages of theoretical and physical preparations in India, which included over 200 lectures on engineering topics related to space flight. They have also completed 39 weeks of intensive crew training activity and have participated in test missions. ISRO is now pursuing a joint mission to the ISS with NASA and US private firm Axiom Space, with at least one of the four gaganauts-in-training expected to be part of the voyage (Shukla has been designated "prime astronaut" for the mission).