“The second Indian in space”, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s return journey to terra firma was safely and successfully accomplished on July 15. Shukla is back after a fruitful stay of about 18 days on the International Space Station (ISS). A day before his return, the Crew Dragon spacecraft ‘Grace’ in which he comfortably sat with his three Axiom 4 colleagues successfully undocked (detached) from the ISS, circling the earth at 400 km height. For the next 22 hours or so, the craft independently orbited the Earth and then dived back into the atmosphere, survived the subsequent fiery re-entry heat and splashed down off the coast of California at a comfortable speed of about 24 km per hour. With this, Shubhanshu Shukla’s maiden sojourn in space concluded.

Understandably, the successful completion of Shukla’s Axiom 4 mission will make the already joyous India more euphoric for quite some time. People across the country, especially........

© Indian Express