THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH

The adventures of an intrepid space scientist who wanted to experience all that he had learnt

- ABHINAV SINGH

He gazed out at the curvature of the earth. Below him was what looked like a blue fog covering the surface of the earth. Above him, the dark sky was sprinkled with stars, in the middle of the day. A short while ago, he had been in Russia. Now, he was in the stratosphere.

As India celebrated its 68th Independence Day, an Indian was getting into the back seat of a MiG-29. At 11:30am, local time, the fighter jet carrying T.N. Suresh Kumar took off from the Sokol airbase in Nizhny Novgorod. Land fell away rapidly. Kumar was mesmerised, taking in every second of the awe-inspiring experience. Soon, the jet was shooting through the sky at a speed of around 2,000kmph (Mach 1.7). And Kumar, even in a G-suit, felt the staggering force of 7G—gravity pulling him back to earth with a force seven times his body weight. But, no force could break his will. For he had dreamed about this for too long.

It was in 2006 that Kumar, an Indian Space Research Organisation scientist, first heard about the edge-of-space flight in Russia being offered to civilians. The MiG could go as high as 20km-22km, depending on weather and temperature, but, 17km was guaranteed. Technically, that is a flight to the stratosphere (approximately 12km-50km above the earth’s surface). The delineation used by most scientists for the edge of space—the Karman line—is 100km above the earth’s surface. However, only astronauts and cosmonauts had ever gone higher than the Russian edge-of-space flights which were taking tourists.

When he heard about the opportunity, Kumar had just returned from Antarctica. But, he jumped upon the chance and made inquiries in Russia. The excitement though was shortlived—the experience would cost ₹47 lakh. He could not afford it.