India’s ‘audacious’ goals, relentless mindset key in Chandrayaan success, says former NASA astronaut Steve Smith

Kochi: India’s ‘audacious’ goals and relentless mindset were pivotal in achieving its lunar mission by surpassing bigwigs like Russia, Japan and the US, former NASA astronaut and technology executive Steve Lee Smith said in Kerala’s Kochi on Thursday.

Smith was referring to the Chandrayaan-3 mission on the Moon last year which made India the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft in the lunar South Pole region. Smith said India can be proud of its progress and take forward the space programme with resilience and grit.

The US astronaut was speaking at a session on ‘‘Lessons Learned from A Skywalker” at the country’s first two-day International Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) at Lulu Grand Hyatt Bolgatty International Convention Center.

The flagship event is organised by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) in collaboration with IBM.

A veteran astronaut, Smith flew into space four times at 28,000 KMH on the space shuttle during his stint in NASA, covering 16 million miles. He also performed seven spacewalks, including repairs of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Commenting on AI, Smith said it is a super exciting time for AI as we can simplify life as well as prioritise things with it. He added that the government system has to ensure that they are building efficient AI models and training people with adequate skills.
Smith also recalled his friendship with Indian-born US astronaut Kalpana Chawla.