How India’s space mission is inspiring a new generation

Back in 2014, soon after India successfully launched a robotic probe around the orbit of Mars, The New York Times published a disparaging cartoon which showed a farmer with a cow knocking at a door with a sign - ‘Elite Space Club’, with two men dressed in suits sitting inside reading a newspaper about India’s mission. There was a huge backlash as many readers complained the cartoon was racist and mocked India. The paper then apologised. Nearly a decade later when India completed a successful mission to the moon’s south pole, people remembered the same cartoon.

This week, another milestone was achieved in India’s space dreams as Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became only the second Indian to travel to space. Along with 3 other astronauts, he took off on the Axiom-4 mission from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and will spend two weeks at the International Space Station carrying out critical experiments. 41 years ago it was then Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma who went to space with the Russians. There is a huge symbolic aspect to Shukla’s space mission but also a more important scientific one as India prepares to launch it’s own human space flight in a mission called ‘Gaganyaan’ in 2027. India also plans to set up its own space station in the next decade and have a man on the moon by 2040.

For India’s space organisation ISRO, these are ambitious and audacious goals which showcase it’s remarkable talent and drive. Despite setbacks and enormous challenges over the years, ISRO is shoulder to shoulder with the best in the business. It went from being an organisation looking at space technology for things like agriculture and communication, to launching complex missions to the moon and Mars in a highly competitive space race. When ISRO successfully completed the moon mission in 2023 with Chandrayaan 3, India became only the fourth country in the world to do a soft landing on the moon.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s experiments at the International Space Station will give ISRO critical inputs in understanding how space impacts biology, such as muscle atrophy. This has implications beyond space travel and can help us better understand why muscles degenerate as we age. There are also other experiments to study the impact of space flight on several different varieties of crop seeds, and growing 3 strains of micro algae that can be used as food and fuel. All these inputs are crucial for ISRO’s big future plans.

Significantly, ISRO is very much a part of Shukla’s mission which was a commercial flight operated by the Houston-based private company Axiom Space and a collaboration between NASA, ISRO, Europe’s space agency and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. ISRO’s Chairman V. Narayanan has been in America for the launch. The mission will also encourage more private players to undertake space travel in the future, all of which can help greatly in research and exploration.

But what really stands out for me is the pride and excitement in India. Group Captain Shukla’s mission has captured the imagination of a billion Indians. It is a front page story everywhere. For children, there is nothing more exciting than the adventure associated with space travel. Group Captain Shukla is a hero for them and his mission will encourage many young people to pursue their space dreams or just dare to dream the impossible no matter what it is. It will hopefully spur a new generation of engineers and scientists.

Yes, India is a country that is still developing and fighting poverty. But that should not stop us from using our scientific talent effectively and reaching for the moon, literally. That is the complexity and duality of India. This research in space has the potential to transform our lives right here on Earth.

Speaking from space minutes after the launch, Group Captain Shukla summed it up nicely: “What a ride. After 40 years, we are back in space… on my shoulders is the Tricolour that is telling me that I am not alone here, all of you are with me. This journey to the International Space Station is not mine alone, this is the beginning of Bharat’s human spaceflight programme”.

For India, the next chapter in space exploration has only begun.