"ISRO Really Helped": Shubhanshu Shukla On Rocket Oxygen Leak Before Space Mission

Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on Thursday said ISRO engineers "really helped" by flagging the liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon-9 rocket that launched his Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in June.

Asked by NDTV during a press conference in Delhi on how he "thanked" ISRO chairman V Narayanan and his team for "saving his life", Group Captain Shukla said everybody doing human space flight missions is "very responsible"

"It is important because lives are involved, and if somebody makes a mistake, people do lose lives," Group Captain Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to travel to the ISS, said.

"It really helped for the technical experts from ISRO to be available there and to have those important discussions," he said while addressing a press conference along with Mr Narayanan, backup astronaut for Axiom-4 mission Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, and Union Minister Jitendra Singh.

Group Captain Shukla was originally planned for lift-off on May 29, but his mission was postponed to June 8 as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft was not fully ready. The mission was then postponed due to high winds in the ascent path of the Falcon-9.

The launch was delayed again due to a liquid oxygen leak in the rocket, and the fault was observed following a demand for due diligence from the ISRO Chairman. NDTV was the first media channel to report on ISRO's involvement.

He then flew to the space station on June 25 alongside former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, Poland's Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, and Hungary's Tibor Kapu. They returned to Earth on July 15.

"SpaceX Lightly Handled Rocket Leak, Could've Been Fatal": ISRO Chief

ISRO chairman V Narayanan said SpaceX had probably taken "lightly" the liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon-9 rocket, putting at risk the lives of the four astronauts.

Addressing a press conference with Group Captain Shukla, Mr Narayanan said it was at the insistence of ISRO engineers that SpaceX examined the leak detected in the oxidiser lines that carry liquid oxygen to the rocket engines and discovered a crack that could have proved fatal.

"If with the crack the rocket lifts off, with the vibrations, it will give way the moment it lifts off. Once it gives way, it is a catastrophic situation, nothing else," he said.

"To their (SpaceX's) surprise, it was a crack. Finally, everything had to be corrected. Probably, they took it a little lightly," he said.

He said the ISRO team, which has worked on liquid oxygen-powered engines for over 40 years, insisted on a complete correction, which was carried out by the SpaceX team.

"But for the complete correction, it would have ended in a catastrophic situation. We have saved the lives of four astronauts," Mr Narayanan said.

He said before the rocket was moved for the June 11 lift-off, an eight-second test was carried out to understand the performance of the engines before giving clearance for the launch.

"They completed the tests, and when we discussed, they did not open up the results, and only said that the Committees have cleared and we are going ahead with the launch programme," he said.

"Probably, they thought it was a minor leakage. That is what the understanding was. It was an oxygen sensor that had picked up. Based on ISRO team's insistence, a complete correction was done by the SpaceX team," he said.