Welcome Back to Earth! Shubhanshu Shukla Lands Safely Back on Earth After 20 Days in Space

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): Four astronauts including Shubhanshu Shukla have returned to Earth from space after 20 days. After a journey of 23 hours, the Dragon spacecraft landed on the sea of California. The four astronauts had left for Earth from the ISS a day earlier in the evening. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed happiness over the safe return of Captain Shubhanshu Shukla. He has termed this journey of returning to Earth from space as a milestone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said through the X platform, "I join the entire nation in welcoming Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, who has returned to Earth from his historic space mission. As India's first astronaut to visit the International Space Station, he has inspired millions of dreams with his dedication, courage and pioneering spirit. This is another milestone towards our own human space flight mission Gaganyaan." At the same time, SpaceX wrote in a post on the social media platform X, "The safe landing of Dragon has been confirmed. Astropagi, Shaks, Astro_Slavoj and Tibby, welcome to Earth!"

Shubhanshu Shukla, American astronaut Peggy Whitson, Poland's Slavoj Uznanski-Wisniewski and Hungary's Tibor Kapu left for the International Space Station (ISS) on June 26. He became the second Indian to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma. Rakesh Sharma made this journey in 1984. When the spacecraft was returning to the Earth's atmosphere, an 18-minute de-orbit burn took place, which took place over the Pacific Ocean. During this, the spacecraft began the process of exiting the Earth's orbit.

While entering the atmosphere, the spacecraft lost contact for about seven minutes. This is called the blackout period. This usually happens when the spacecraft is unable to catch the signal due to high speed and heat. In the process of return, the trunk (rear part) of the spacecraft was separated and the heat shield was installed in the right direction, so that the spacecraft could get protection while entering the atmosphere. At that time, the spacecraft had to face heat of up to 1,600 degrees Celsius. During the successful landing of the spacecraft, the parachutes were opened in two stages. SpaceX said that in April, the Dragon spacecraft was landed for the first time on the west coast (California) through the FRCM-2 mission. This was the second time that the Dragon spacecraft landed on the coast of California with humans. Earlier, most of SpaceX's splashdowns (landing in the sea) took place in the Atlantic Ocean.

During his stay of more than two weeks on the ISS, Shubhnshu Shukla orbited the Earth more than 310 times and covered a distance of about 1.3 crore kilometers. This distance is 33 times more than the distance between the Earth and the Moon, which is a great achievement in itself. During the space mission, the crew witnessed more than 300 sunrises and sunsets from the International Space Station (ISS) - which was possible due to the fast orbit of the Earth. Meanwhile, ISRO said on Monday that Shubhnshu Shukla has successfully completed all the seven micro-gravity experiments and other planned scientific activities during his mission. ISRO has called it a "major achievement of the mission".

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