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Home ahoy! Shubhanshu Shukla, crew back on Earth after 18-day space odyssey as Axiom-4 spacecraft lands | Watch
SpaceX Dragon spacecraft took 22+ hrs to journey from International Space Station, from which it undocked Monday evening; Axiom-4 team was there for 18 days
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others on the Axiom-4 mission made a splashdown landing off the coast of California, US, at the scheduled time, 3.01 pm IST, on Tuesday, July 15.
It took the spacecraft around 22-and-a-half hours to journey from the International Space Station (ISS), from which it undocked around 4.50pm IST on Monday. The team was there for 18 days and conducted at least 60 experiments.
Piloted by Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Ax-4 spacecraft — called ‘Grace’ — made the splashdown landing in the Pacific Ocean, NASA said.
Boats went in to get them out safely, and they exited the spacecraft just before 4 pm IST on a ferry at sea. Medical checks were done to determine their physical health and spirits. Helicopters would further ferry them out, and they are to be in a re-acclimatisation process for a few days.
This is similar to the landing by Indian-origin US astronaut Sunita Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore in March after a nine-month mission on the ISS. Their SpaceX capsule, called ‘Freedom’, landed in the Atlantic Ocean near the Florida coast.
PM Narendra Modi posted a welcome message on X: “I join the nation in welcoming Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as he returns to Earth from his historic mission to Space. As India’s first astronaut to have visited International Space Station, he has inspired a billion dreams through his dedication, courage and pioneering spirit."
He added: "It marks another milestone towards our own Human Space Flight Mission — Gaganyaan.”
What Axiom-4 means for India's ‘Gaganyaan’
Commander Peggy Whitson, an Axiom employee and former NASA astronaut, was the senior-most of the crew.
For the non-American trio — Shubhanshu Shukla from India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland, and Hungary's Tibor Kapu — this marked a return to crewed spaceflight for their countries after decades.
For India, this is seen as a move forward towards its first independent crewed mission scheduled for 2027 under its Gaganyaan plan.
During the mission — launched from the Kennedy Space Center on June 25 — the crew conducted experiments on medicine, agriculture, and, of course, space exploration. At the nub of it all was, how being in space affects things like growing food, managing water supply, and what it does to the human body.
18th for Musk's company
Axiom-4 marked the 18th crewed spaceflight by Elon Musk-owned SpaceX since 2020. For Axiom, a nine-year-old venture, this mission builds on its business of putting astronauts sponsored by private companies and foreign governments into low-Earth orbit.
Axiom also is one of a handful of companies developing a commercial space station of its own intended to eventually replace the ISS, which NASA expects to retire around 2030.
(With inputs from Reuters)
