What compels someone who has had the life of an adventurer, to strap themselves to a rocket and launch themselves at three times the speed of sound, 100km up into space? Well, for Captain Gopichand Thotakura, the second Indian to go to space after Rakesh Sharma and India’s first space tourist, it is the bliss of the unknown.
In a one-on-one chat with Firstpost about his upcoming flight on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket, Captain Thotakura reveals what it takes to be an astronaut, how common space tourism is going to be pretty soon, and how Indian aerospace startups and ISRO are a force to be reckoned with.
Captain Thotakura, an alumnus of Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, one of the most prestigious aeronautical schools in the world, is hard at work, preparing for his sub-orbital space flight. However, he is also a bit cautious.
You see, even though he is speaking to many astronauts, especially those who have been working on Blue Origin, he does not want to talk about what it feels like when one is in sub-orbital flight, not yet at least. “A lot of the astronauts that I have spoken to, who have done these flights keep on saying, ‘Oh, you should definitely do it. You don’t know what it is when you’re up there.’ I want it to be a surprise,” Captain Thotakura said.
One thing that was abundantly clear from our conversation with him — Captain Gopichand Thotakura, was born to take to the skies. Edited excerpts:
Captain, you will be India’s first private astronaut and the second Indian after Rakesh Sharma to go to space. How did this idea germinate in your brain? Tell us something about your life.I always wanted to be in aviation. I flew off as a child with my father, travelling to various places. I was like every Indian kid who has ever flown or seen a pilot in uniform and wanted to be a pilot, I too decided that I wanted to be a pilot, right when I was a child.
It’s just that I just decided to get to the other side of the line.
I flew as a commercial pilot and a medical pilot in India. I have also been on many other adventures in aviation, like flying seaplanes, gliders, aerobatics, and hot air ballooning in the United States, prior to that. I always knew that this was my passion, that this is what I always wanted to do.
You have to push your boundaries constantly and one-up yourself, and for me, that one-up was space. That has been very near and dear to me since I started understanding life. It’s very aspirational for someone to dream of becoming an astronaut. And that was the case with me as well.
But to actually have that chance is what is different. Today, you have this opportunity, a new frontier for an Indian like myself to go to space with a private agency. This is something that you generally don’t hear of, but now it is happening. This opportunity came to me, and I consider myself very fortunate and honoured to represent my country and my family.
You also flew as an international medivac pilot, right? What does it entail? I am assuming it must be one of the most stressful and high-pressure jobs.Yes, I was a medivac pilot, and I flew in India, as well as internationally. Practically, I flew all over the world. A lot of people believe that flying is stressful, that it is a high-pressure job that only a select few are actually able to cope with it. I don’t think that’s true. If you enjoy what you truly do, then it’s not stressful at all.
No matter what the job is, I don’t think it always gives you bad days. Everybody has good and bad days. But I enjoyed every single bit of it, absolutely loved it. I wanted to be a medical pilot and, you know, give something back to the community, and I had the honour of doing it.
As for what kind of missions we were on, we did everything. We flew to a different country every day, and rescued a lot people from some really sticky situations, transported organs — all kinds of missions. That was my call of duty. What I learned on the job, was that you have to keep yourself at a distance from the rest of the aircraft. If you get emotionally attached to the patient, to the people on board, you’re not going to be able to safely deliver the patient and the team where they need to be. You also might have issues at the next mission as well.
For me, my job is to get you from point A to point B, and if I can focus on that, then the rest of the team — the doctors, medical staff et all — can focus on their jobs, take care of the issue at hand and save lives.
I am sure you’ve already started training for the flight. What does it take to be an astronaut, physically?The Blue Origin flight is not like a mission where you’re going to spend 10 days or a month at the ISS, nor is it an orbital mission where there’s a lot of physical strain on the body, so I don’t think that the physicality of the flight is that challenging.
There is some training that happens before the flight. Some training will take place through Blue Origin that will put us through the tests of the G-forces that we will experience, what will happen when we actually pass the common line, how we get out of our seats, how we float around in zero gravity, how do we go back to our seats, how do we re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, pull back by gravity, our landing, et cetera, et cetera.
How I really see it is that there’s a lot to do with the psychology of this. Why I say that is because of my interactions with others who have been to space. On the ground, we have a lot of support not just physically, but mentally. Up there, whether you’re there for a second or you’re there for 100 days, mentally, you’re not prepared for that. That’s something you don’t think about. You’re not prepared to see what the naked eye has never seen before.
It’s the first time you would be in zero gravity, right? There are places in the US and India where you can experience that, but none of them can even come close to what it feels like, when you’re up there. A lot of astronauts I have spoken to have actually gone to do these zero-G flights and all of them keep saying, “Oh, you should definitely do it. You don’t know how it is when you’re up there.”
I don’t want it that way. I want to experience it myself for the first time when I am up there. Why take away the joy here on the ground and make do with an idea of what it might feel like when you can actually experience it for real? You have the chance to see what the Earth actually looks like, instead of looking at a globe.
Has anyone told you yet what the launch experience will be like?I can only imagine what a human body must go through. The kind of forces one must be experiencing when a rocket takes off. Everybody that I have spoken to about this is just flabbergasted. Most of them are at a loss for words and are unable to describe it. But I can only imagine that it will be amazing.
Having said that, I don’t want to talk a lot about these. Why get all the inputs? Where’s the thrill or the X factor in that? For me, the X factor is the actual flight. The whole point of this exercise is the experience of it. I want to be surprised by this.
Most people don’t really get out of their comfort zones, not to this extent. That’s what I plan on doing.
We are seeing a lot of chatter around space tourism. Several startups are planning to set up a space hotel or ISS-like resorts, or even set up a base on the moon. How feasible are these plans? Are we 10-15 years away like these startups say?I reckon we are not that far away. A lot of organisations are working on some really interesting projects that may help us put up an ISS-like resort for tourists in space in just a couple of years, not 10-15.
Even if they are not able to set up something like the ISS, we are very close to start sending massive payloads up and in space and keep it there. Blue Origin, for example, will be launching their Blue Moon lunar lander soon, which will be a precursor to a larger network of moon landers that can carry humans and cargo to the Moon
It’s unbelievable to think that only a hundred years ago we had our first human flight with the Wright Brothers in 1903. And now, just over a century later, we’re able to place things in space for future exploration. All this is going to happen not 20 years from now, but much sooner.
India also has a great opportunity here. There are 200+ startups in India. I would like for one of these companies to do something before the others.
I don’t think going to space will be a lofty dream for people much longer. We’re almost at that point.
ISRO has a track record for being the most economical option as far as government agencies are concerned when sending a package to space. How does that position India in regards to commercial activities in space, like space tourism?What ISRO has achieved was always in the making. Because of them, people in other parts of the world raise their heads and take notice when you say, “I’m from India.” We are not seen as just another run-of-the-mill country. We had that passion in our blood.
Look at what they did with the Chandrayaan mission. No one imagined that anybody could land near the South Pole of the moon and yet, that happened. The team at ISRO, with some great leadership, are showing great results. With ISRO, it’s not about “if they can do it.” It’s about “when they do it.”
Then, we also have the Gaganyaan mission, our first manned flight to space coming up. I am sure they will be announcing a few more missions that will be really interesting to look out for. We already are a force to be reckoned with. For us, its not a show and tell, we walk the walk, instead of just talking the talk.
How closely are you following the Gaganyaan mission?Not very closely, mainly because my journey with Blue Origin started before the Chandrayaan’s landing and the Gaganyaan’s announcement.
But, I have started following it a lot more closely since it was publicly announced. I hope I get to meet some of the people in the team at ISRO after my short suborbital flight and share with them my experience of what I felt and how it is on the other side.
You spoke of Indian aerospace startups and the potential they have, how they are pushing the Indian aerospace sector to new and challenging frontiers. Is there any Indian startup that you think is doing really interesting work?There are quite a few, but the larger question is what’s with their funding? Are they being given the resources to go all out? Because, if that happens, one can only imagine what these startups and ISRO can achieve, if they get the kind of funding that other space agencies and startups get.
We have the greatest minds on the planet. When they put their mind to it, they deliver results, and they achieve what others think is improbable. We need to wait and watch. The way we are, it is not in our DNA to turn this into a competition, For us, it’s about ‘let’s do it and let’s ask how we can do it better next time.’ That’s the attitude we should have. And that would be a lot more forefronting.
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