In a statement made on Tuesday, ISRO chief V Narayanan revealed that a crack was found in the main feed line of the rocket that was set to carry Indian astronaut Subhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station (ISS). This discovery, which forced a launch reschedule, was crucial, as a mission with the undetected flaw would have resulted in a "catastrophic failure," Narayanan said.
The flaw in the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission rocket caused the launch to be postponed from June 11 to June 25. During a convocation address at Osmania University, Narayanan recounted the events leading up to Shukla's space journey. He explained that the ISRO team at the Kennedy Space Center in the US detected the flaw on June 10 and immediately demanded a full investigation.
India demanded entire correction
Narayanan, who is also the Secretary of the Department of Space, said that out of 14 questions asked, none were answered satisfactorily, including the location of the leak. "We demanded the entire correction," he said, citing his 40 years of experience in the field, which made him aware of the dangers of a rocket taking off with a leak. The Indian team submitted a formal note, and the entire leak was subsequently corrected.
He added that if the rocket had launched with the leak, it would have been a catastrophic failure. "Based on the insistence of Indians, the Indian education system, the training of ISRO, the rocket was corrected. Today we have accomplished a safe mission," he said, noting that not only Subhanshu Shukla but also three other international astronauts were safely launched.
Shukla, who returned to India on Sunday, was part of the Axiom-4 private space mission that lifted off from Florida on June 25 and docked at the ISS the next day. He returned to Earth on July 15 with fellow astronauts Peggy Whitson (US), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary). During the 18-day mission, Shukla conducted over 60 experiments and 20 outreach sessions.
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