Last Updated on 10/08/2024 by wccexam Desk
Indian Air Force’s highly experienced test pilots and ISRO’s selected astronauts for Gaganyaan mission, Group Captain Shumbhashu Shukla and Group Captain Prashant Balakrishnan Nair are undergoing training to go to the space station in Houston. They will go to the International Space Station under the Axiom-4 Mission. Their training has been going on for five days.
Axiom-4 Mission will reach the orbiting laboratory through SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. Their launch will be from Florida. All the people going in this spacecraft will spend at least 14 days in the space station. During this time, it is possible that Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla may meet Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been stuck in the space station for the last two months. At present, no fixed announcement has been made about her mission to return to Earth.
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Last week, ISRO said that it had signed a deal with Axiom Space to send two Gaganyaan astronauts to the US under the Space Flight Agreement. ISRO’s Human Space Flight Center (HSFC) had appointed Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as the prime mission pilot for this mission. Group Captain Nair will be the backup.
Group Captain Shukla will be the prime mission pilot
Along with Group Captain Shukla, three more people are going to the International Space Station (ISS). They are Commander Peggy Whitson from America, Mission Specialist Slavoj Uzanski from Poland on behalf of ESA and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu from Hungary. Shukla will be the prime mission pilot along with them.
Green signal from international panel of space station is pending
The flight of these people is currently pending. The Multilateral Crew Operations Panel (MCOP) gives the green signal to the flight. It has representatives from NASA, European Space Agency, Russian Space Agency, Japanese Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency. They decide who will go to the space station and when. What kind of mission will it be.
Know who are the astronauts going to the space station from India
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla
Born on 10 October 1985 in Lucknow, Shubhanshu received his military training at NDA. He was inducted into the fighter stream of the Air Force on 17 June 2006. He is a fighter combat leader and a test pilot. He has 2000 hours of flying experience. He has flown aircraft and fighter jets like Sukhoi-30MKI, Mig-21, Mig-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, N-32.
Group Captain Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair
Born on 26 August 1976 in Thiruvazhiyad, Kerala. Completed training at NDA. Has received the Sword of Honor from the Air Force Academy. On 19 December 1998, he was included in the Air Force’s fighter jet program. Was made a fighter pilot. He is a CAT-A class flying instructor and test pilot. Has about 3000 hours of flying experience.
Prashant Nair has flown aircraft like Su-30MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Hawk, Dornier, AN-32 etc. He is also an alumnus of United States Staff College, DSSC, Wellington and FIS, Tambaram. He has also been the Commandant of Sukhoi-30 Squadron.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)