A déjà vu moment for Indian space odyssey
Call it providence or pure coincidence but June 25 seems to be a day of destiny as regards India from even before it achieved independence. Many spectacular events have unfolded on this very day over the years. On June 25, 1932, India became the sixth team to be granted Test cricket status when it played its first match at Lord's on that historic day. Close to midnight of June 25, 1975, the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed proclaimed national Emergency citing 'internal disturbance'. It was to mark a watershed event as India's political landscape underwent a dramatic transformation and gave a new democratic dimension.
On June 25, 1983, India rewrote cricketing history by emerging as world champions, when Kapil's Devils upset all calculations and put an end to the hat-trick quest of West Indies by winning the ODI World Cup in a stunning manner. Now 42 years to the day, June 25, 2025, to be precise, an Indian with the tricolour on his shoulders has put the country's name in a league of extraordinary achievers.
A distinguished IAF pilot and astronaut, Lucknow's 39-year-old Shubhanshu Shukla scripted history by embarking on a space odyssey along with three others on Wednesday as part of an ISRO-NASA supported commercial spaceflight by Axiom Space that blasted off for a 14-day sojourn to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Incidentally, Shukla is one of four astronauts picked for ISRO's historic Gaganyaan mission, which marks India's inaugural human space flight endeavour. The lift-off at 12.01 pm on Wednesday (after several eleventh hour heart-breaking postponements) took the clock back by 41 years when Hyderabad's very own Rakesh Sharma became India's first man in space. He spent eight days in orbit as part of the then Soviet Union's Salyut-7 space station in 1984.
A day after the take-off, Shukla went a notch higher than Sharma when he achieved the distinction of being the first Indian astronaut to have travelled to ISS. Along with three other astronauts, he reached the ISS when the Dragon spacecraft, named Grace, docked with the orbital laboratory at 4:01 pm (IST) on Thursday over the North Atlantic Ocean, marking the climax of a 28 hours flight.
Incidentally, Axiom 4 mission heralds the return to space not just for India, but Poland and Hungary as well. Also onboard is the mission commander Peggy Whitson, and mission specialists Poland's Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Hungary's Tibor Kapu. If Shukla stirred the emotions of the countrymen with 'Sare Jahan se Achhcha…' while speaking to Indira Gandhi, Shukla's first message from space was equally patriotic.
'The Tiranga embossed on my shoulders tells me that I am with all of you. This journey of mine is not a beginning to the ISS but to India's Human Space Programme. I want all of you to be part of this journey. Your chest, too, should swell with pride... Jai Hind! Jai Bharat!' The October 10, 1985-born history-maker was commissioned into the IAF fighter wing in June 2006. He has an excellent track-record as a combat leader and seasoned test pilot having a mindboggling 2,000 hours of flight experience across aircraft like the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier and An-32.
It is time Indians took a break from wars and conflicts and celebrated the glorious achievements of Shukla, Sharma and Sunita Williams, who set new benchmarks in spacewalk, which redefined 'resilience' during her nine-month stay aboard the ISS. Bravo, India's torchbearers of the extraordinary kind.
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Was the colour of the sky blue during the dinosaur era?
When we gaze up at the sky, it's easy to assume it's always looked blue all through the years. After all, the sky's colour is such a consistent backdrop in our daily lives. But Earth's past is full of unimaginable changes, like shifting continents, evolving life, and even an ever-moving position of our galaxy in terms of the shifting universe. But was the colour always the same shade? A NASA research scientist, Jessie Christiansen, explained that the night sky, and possibly even the daytime one, may have looked a little different during the age of dinosaurs. The reason isn't just atmospheric changes but also the solar system's journey through the Milky Way galaxy. Was the sky during the dinosaur era a different colour from today's blue? The sky we see today is blue because of Rayleigh scattering. Sunlight contains all the colours of the spectrum, but shorter wavelengths, like blue and violet, scatter more when they hit air molecules. Our eyes are more sensitive to blue than violet, which is why the sky appears blue. However, during the time of the dinosaurs, which lasted for about 250 to 65 million years ago during the Mesozoic Era, Earth's climate and atmospheric conditions were quite different. Earth was generally warmer during this era, which meant more water vapor in the air. This didn't necessarily mean more clouds, since cloud formation depends on evaporation and saturation levels, but it could have impacted how the sky appeared. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Everybody Is Switching To This Enterprise Accounting Software [Take a Look] Accounting ERP Click Here Undo This means that while the physics of Rayleigh scattering still applies, the exact appearance of the sky may have shifted due to changes in humidity, temperature, and atmospheric particles. Closer to the end of the Mesozoic, it likely resembled the nearly-clear light blue skies we know today. The night also looked different than today! The sky's appearance also changed depending on where Earth was in the Milky Way galaxy. According to NASA scientist Jessie Christiansen, when dinosaurs such as Stegosaurus and Iguanodons roamed Earth during the early Cretaceous period, "our entire solar neighborhood was on the opposite side of the Milky Way galaxy that it is now." Christiansen explained that "the dinosaurs were around for 200 million years, give or take, so the sky might have looked different early on but more like today towards the end, about 65 million years ago," as reported by CNN. It is never possible to reach the same point that the Earth travelled years ago! Apart from that, Christiansen also said that "we're back to where we were between 200 to 250 million years ago" in terms of our position within the galaxy. But because everything in the galaxy, including stars and solar systems, is constantly moving and rotating around a central black hole, she clarified that "we've never really [been] back at the same absolute point in space because it's not possible." So, was the sky a different colour back then? The answer is probably yes, at least for some time. While it may not have been of a starkly different colour but probably of a slightly different shade of blue as per some reports. While the scattering of light works the same, Earth's shifting climate, atmosphere, and cosmic position likely made the sky appear a bit different at various points in dinosaur history. Photo: Canva
India Today
an hour ago
- India Today
Wake up Isro! You forgot to celebrate your own astronaut
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