Video: Nasa's Crew-11 docks with Space Station to begin six-month mission
The crew's arrival brings the station's population to 11, as they join the current Expedition 73 team before the outgoing astronauts return to Earth.Set for a minimum six-month stay, Crew-11 will tackle a packed research schedule spanning biology, technology, and human health, including advanced 3D printing experiments and pioneering tests of solar sail propulsion, crucial for future deep-space missions. They will also participate in physiological and psychological studies to prepare humanity for extended voyages, such as missions to Mars.Their mission coincides with a significant anniversary: the ISS will celebrate 25 uninterrupted years of human habitation in November, highlighting the station's enduring role as a beacon of scientific discovery and international unity.Earth. Dragon for scale. pic.twitter.com/hZjb4h1RV6— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 2, 2025With the ISS scheduled for retirement by 2030, each subsequent crew, including Crew-11, plays a vital part in maximizing the station's scientific output before its decommissioning.As Crew-11 settles in, their six-month odyssey stands to inspire future explorers and broaden the horizons of what's possible in space science and cooperation.- EndsTune InMust Watch
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Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Outlining the Assam connection in Nasa-SpaceX's latest space voyage
Nearly three decades ago, a friend excitedly called to tell me our fellow Assamese American, Jhuma, had gotten engaged…to an astronaut. 'Is he Assamese?' I asked. 'How many Assamese astronauts do you know?' Good point. None. Like many of us second-generation Assamese born and raised on US shores, hers would be a blended marriage and, eventually, family. On Friday, August 1, at 11.43 am, the husband of Renita Saikia, my lifelong friend I've only ever called Jhuma, soared into space as a member of NASA's Crew-11, on a six- to eight-month mission. This week, I joined a few dozen of their family and friends at the Kennedy Space Center to wish Mike Fincke well. We began with a 'wave across' staged in a parking lot, a rope separating the four quarantined astronauts from loved ones, allowing us to say goodbye and good luck at a safe distance. We ended with the actual launch, the second attempt to send the SpaceX Dragon up after clouds and the threat of lightning thwarted the first try. In between were parties, photo ops, tours of space facilities, impromptu lunches and dinners, and late-night gatherings among disparate friend groups suddenly united. We infused these time-honored space traditions, though, with some of our own. Months ago, when Renita extended this precious invitation that comes with behind-the-scenes access to Kennedy Space Center, the astronauts, and the rocket launch itself, she did so not only because she's known me my whole life. Renita's father, Rupesh Saikia, emigrated from Assam in the 1960s, among the earliest pioneers of our tiny community on U.S. shores. He married Monju Aunty in 1966 and eventually settled in New Jersey, then Huntsville, Alabama. By the time my own father arrived in 1971, families like these were the ones who helped explain America, from foods and customs to bank transactions and mortgages. When my mom was pregnant with me, Renita's mother helped throw a baby shower combined with the Assamese ritual of panchamrit, blessings for the mother and child. As a child, I remember Renita coming over to color and play games with me and the long drives we'd take to go meet her family. 'I want you to be the Assamese rep,' Renita told me. 'The community has been so important for Mike and me…keeping some Assamese flavor in the mix would be so great.' And so I write these words, mission accomplished, with a sense of that obligation. It's really cool to attend a space launch, and I was aware of the privilege and once-in-a-lifetime nature of what I was experiencing. But at each and every event, I also felt an enormous responsibility to the many identities Mike and Renita straddle and inherit, and the one I happen to share. The Assamese infusion 'Do you know how to make that noise?' my friend Seebany Datta-Barua, another Assamese American at the launch, asked at the wave across. She was talking about uruli, the Assamese tradition of making a high-pitched sound by moving the tongue back and forth. We do this at weddings, festivals, moments of joy—and departures. 'I don't, but I can try,' I responded. And so we did. (It sounds like this) Mike instantly responded by smiling in recognition, bowing his head and clasping his hands into a namaskar. My husband and I, Seebany, and her daughter also had very American signs spelling out M–I–K–E, but on the backside of one, Seebany had written, in Assamese, 'Mike, infinite blessings to you!' We planned our outfits to include elements of Assamese flair. On the day of a pre-launch celebration, we wore mekhela chadors, the signature two-piece Assamese garment. I hesitated, especially in Florida's 100-degree humidity, but my husband assured me the designs of the japi, an Assamese ornamental hat made of cane or bamboo, resembled flying saucers. Sold. This mission marks Mike's fourth journey to space, and he has taken the gamosa up before as one of his sentimental items. Sure enough, a NASA livestream commentator detailed why in the moments before he boarded the spacecraft: Mike Fincke's embrace of our people As Mike has learned, and my own husband too, to marry an Assamese—at least a certain type of Assamese—is to enter a community that is so unique and tight-knit, where everyone knows everyone else due to the smallness of our diasporic population, a complex collective that teeters between parochial and progressive. Because so few people know where we come from, we quickly learn how to define ourselves and how to fit in. Being Assamese, I maintain, allows us to traverse lands, languages, and cultures because there's a universality in being unknown. Except for the years he's been in space or quarantine, I see Mike at least once a year at our annual Assam Conventions. He and Renita make it a point to fly or drive from their home outside Houston, three children in tow, as a way of keeping tradition alive. My family feels similarly, and our children have often choreographed and danced the folk dance known as Bihu together. In the years he can't physically join, Mike still makes an appearance. In 2004, he called in from space—projected onto a screen in the hotel ballroom in Austin, Texas—to wish everyone well and perform a Bihu dance. Check out this clip that went viral in our communities across the world: When the cameras aren't rolling, though, I can attest to Mike's sense of respect for our culture and people. I see it in how he treats his in-laws and elderly people like my parents. I see it in how he springs into action when my own daughter, who now attends college in Houston, gets stranded after a flight cancellation and he does not hesitate to go collect her from the airport—at 2 a.m. These are the stories of immigrant solidarity, of community building, that many of us grew up with—but have waned in recent years. Some of it is understandable and more pragmatic (a taxi is a perfectly reasonable option from the airport) as our tiny Assamese population grows. But once upon a time, if you found a Kalita or Saikia in the phone book, chances were high that you would call as strangers and emerge as friends. In the decades I have known Mike and Renita—who, it's worth noting, also works for NASA—the behaviors I describe of immigrants are also traits I have come to associate with astronauts. I was reminded of it this week as the escorts NASA assigned to be with the families of the crew are astronauts themselves, in the unique position of knowing exactly the high stakes and high pressure and many emotions of a launch. I watched them carry suitcases, drive loved ones to and fro, soothe fears, cook comfort food, answer lay questions. The flat hierarchy and sense of service are remarkable—and necessary—and challenge the oft-held notion that the smartest people in the room aren't always the most compassionate. Here, intellect and humanity are equal ingredients for success. I walked away from this week with new appreciation for space travel as a means of understanding what it means to be human. Perhaps that study of said humans attracts the best humans in the process because their examination actually begins with themselves—and their daily actions. So how many Assamese astronauts do you know? I know a guy who comes pretty close. S. Mitra Kalita is a veteran journalist, author, and commentator. This piece is published in collaboration with URL Media, a network of community media. Views expressed are personal.
Indian Express
6 hours ago
- Indian Express
Intervention by Indian team helped fix key issue before Axiom-4 launch: ISRO chief
Weeks before it finally took off, the Axiom-4 mission, which carried Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), was nearly cleared for launch despite a perceived minor oxygen leak — until an ISRO team insisted on further checks that revealed a potentially dangerous crack in the rocket, ISRO Chairperson Dr V Narayanan told The Indian Express. The Axiom-4 mission took off for space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25 after a series of delays since the initial launch date of May 29. The first launch was deferred to June 8 due to an electrical issue in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft — the module where the crew was seated. But on June 8, when the engines were test-fired on ground, an oxygen leak was observed in addition to an anomaly in one of the actuators, used in controlling the direction of the rocket's thrust. Dr Narayanan told The Indian Express that the oxygen leak was deemed minor and unlikely to affect the launch, but the Indian team — 18 scientists including the ISRO chairman and the director of the Human Space Flight Centre — embedded with the Axiom-4 and NASA teams felt something was amiss and pushed for further checks. 'Initially the team thought that there was a minor leak and the mission could proceed as planned. But, the Indian team insisted that proper checks be carried out even if it meant delaying the mission. And it was good that the tests were carried out because a crack was detected, allowing for repair. It was resolved before the mission took off,' Dr Narayanan said. The crack was in the oxidiser line, which carries liquid oxygen to power the rocket — a serious safety risk, especially for a crewed mission. The crack and other issues were fixed, but on June 12 NASA announced it was working with Russian space agency Roscosmos to evaluate a leak in the Zvezda module, the Russian-built service module of the ISS that houses key life-support and docking systems. This further delayed the mission until the final launch two weeks. During the mission, the Indian team was present at both Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral where launch operations took place and at mission control in Houston, Texas, where real-time flight operations are managed — from crew health monitoring and communications to emergency response. Dr Narayanan described the mission as a significant step forward for ISRO's human spaceflight programme, with astronaut training emerging as its single most valuable takeaway. He said Indian scientists got hands-on exposure to how crewed missions are run — from making real-time decisions and interpreting telemetry data to monitoring astronaut health and responding to in-flight contingencies. 'It was like a classroom where we learnt a lot by working with the other teams there,' he said. 'The experience was important for understanding how human space missions are run at an operational level… The training of the astronaut — especially with someone as experienced as the commander — was a big learning experience for the Indian team.' Axiom-4 commander Peggy Whitson, a veteran astronaut, holds the record for the most number of days spent in space by an American or a woman — 695 days across multiple missions. India plans to build a sustained human spaceflight programme, with a space station targeted by 2035 and a human Moon mission by 2040. This will require setting up a permanent astronaut corps and regularly training new astronauts, like NASA and Roscosmos do. In addition to the training, Dr Narayanan said Shukla's experience of living in microgravity, staying in an isolated environment and returning to Earth would be invaluable for India's own programme. ISRO has asked Shukla to document his entire experience in detail. 'This,' Dr Narayanan said, 'would become teaching material for his fellow astronauts as well as the other astronauts to come.' Shukla, who returned to Earth with a splashdown on July 15, is currently undergoing reconditioning in the United States. He is expected to remain in quarantine until the first week of August, after which he will participate in a debriefing with NASA and return home by mid-August.
The Hindu
7 hours ago
- The Hindu
From The Hindu, August 4, 1975: NASA invites India to join space shuttle experiment
Ahmedabad, Aug. 3: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invited India to propose an experiment that could be placed in the space shuttle, scheduled to become operative in 1980. An Indian scientist can accompany the experiment in the space shuttle also, said Mr. Arnold Frutkin, Assistant Administrator for International Affairs, NASA, in an interview to a local daily here. Mr. Frutkin, who played a leading role in India's Satellite Instructional Television Experiment was here to watch its inauguration on August 1. He said the European countries participating in the research project aboard the shuttle might send a scientist. The space shuttle was the next major project of NASA after the Apollo programme had ended, he added. 'It is less costly ($12 billions) but is expected to be a major milestone in space travel as it will try the concept of reusable booster,' he said. Mr. Frutkin said the cargo bay of the shuttle would be 60 feet long and 15 feet wide. The space shuttle, well past the design stage, would also carry an entire laboratory and change the way 'you do business in space. It will make space travel cheaper,' he added. Mr. Frutkin said the costs were bound to go down if the same booster could be used over and over again.
