‘Another space voyage’

Congratulations to both India and the US for enduring partnership between the NASA and ISRO for successful launching of Axiom 4 Mission and sending four astronauts including Group captain Shubhanshu Shukla from India. He is on way to becoming the first Indian pilot to successfully dock with the  International Space Station. Sending humans into space and bringing them back safely to earth after two-week- long stay, pose grave challenges. Long stay of spacefarers, outside earth’s gravity, may result in losing the ability to regenerate muscles. Going by Sunita Williams and  her co- spacefarer’s experiences, this  could even cause muscle atrophy. The ISRO-NASA team, during the mission. is  supposed to collect inputs for research in the fields of Genetic engineering and Biotechnology, among others.

A K Saxena (Former civil servant)