'Our scientists detected it': ISRO chief says Ax-4 leak could have been 'catastrophic'

ISRO Chairman and Department of Space Secretary V Narayanan on Tuesday said a crack in the main feed line of the rocket that carried India's Subhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts to the International Space Station could have caused a "catastrophic failure" had it gone undetected.

Delivering the Convocation Address of Osmania University in Hyderabad, Narayanan recalled how the flaw, detected just a day before the original June 11 launch of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission, forced a reschedule to June 25. "Our scientists detected it," Narayanan said, emphasising that the intervention was crucial to avert disaster.

He narrated that the ISRO team stationed at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre in the US came to know about the leakage on June 10. "There were 14 questions asked and none of the questions were answered satisfactorily, including where the leak was. It was not identified. We demanded the entire correction, because we were very clear. Because I have been working in that area for 40 years, I know what is the difficulty if a rocket takes off with a leak," Narayanan said.

The ISRO chief added that, based on the Indian government's demand, the team put up a note which led to the correction of the leakage. "If the rocket had taken off (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, not only Subhanshu Shukla, along with him three more international astronauts," he said.

The Ax-4 mission lifted off from Florida on June 25 and docked at the International Space Station on June 26. Shukla returned to Earth on July 15, along with Peggy Whitson of the United States, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. 

Narayanan underlined Shukla's role aboard the ISS. During the 18-day mission, Shukla conducted over 60 experiments and 20 outreach sessions. He returned to India on Sunday after completing the historic voyage.

(With inputs from PTI)