Stepping stone: On Shubhanshu Shukla, NASA-Axiom-ISRO tie-up  

A crew of four astronauts including India’s Shubhanshu Shukla completed their roughly two-week mission to the International Space Station on July 15. Mr. Shukla’s trip was presumed to have been an intensive rehearsal ahead of his flight as part of India’s first batch of astronauts for ISRO’s ‘Gaganyaan’ mission, currently expected in 2027. The presumption is because the goals of Mr. Shukla’s trip, which ISRO arranged for by paying north of ₹500 crore to Axiom Space, have not been officially communicated by Indian authorities. Fortunately, clarifications from Axiom and NASA have since cast more light on its purpose. While ISRO and the Department of Space are still expected to proactively disseminate what they know about their activities under Gaganyaan, not least because of the mission’s ₹20,000 crore price tag, Mr. Shukla’s trip ought to strengthen ISRO’s preparations. Human spaceflight is a highly involved endeavour: once in space, the crew is on its own and the resources to respond to a variety of situations are limited. According to a statement ISRO published after the mission launched on June 25, Mr. Shukla and Prasanth Nair — who is also part of Gaganyaan’s first cohort of astronauts and was part of the Axiom mission’s backup crew — were familiarised with “advanced spacecraft systems, emergency protocols, scientific payload operations, microgravity adaptation, space medicine, and survival traits”. As the mission pilot, per Axiom, Mr. Shukla was also coached on docking and undocking, manual operations, atmospheric reentry, and anomaly management. Onboard the space station, Mr. Shukla was exposed to operations in the Japanese and European modules, for which he and Mr. Nair were trained in Japan and Germany. ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan has also said that the Axiom mission cost less than what ISRO might have had to invest if it had to train Mr. Shukla on its own. In all, the NASA-Axiom-ISRO tie-up emerges as an admirable outcome, even as space agencies continue to closely guard space technologies for their strategic value.

Concerns that the limitations imposed by the U.S.’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations would prevent the duo from learning much may also be laid to rest. Instead, they may be replaced by concerns about ISRO’s piecemeal communication. Astronauts cut inspirational figures and appeal to all ages. As India prepares for its first human spaceflight mission, there can be no better way to build excitement than by facilitating access to India’s astronauts. The lack of initiative is hard to rationalise, although it is still not too late. ISRO as well as India’s soft power platform will make copious gains by expanding outreach and easing public access to the spacefarers.