The Ax-4 crew aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft — including Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS) — is on course to return to Earth with a scheduled splashdown in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego at around 3 PM IST on Tuesday.
The crew is currently aboard the Dragon spacecraft “Grace”, which undocked from the ISS on Monday at 4:45 PM IST after spending nearly 19 days on the orbiting laboratory as part of Axiom Space’s fourth private astronaut mission (Ax-4). Their return journey to Earth will take approximately 22.5 hours.
SpaceX confirmed the re-entry trajectory via a post on X, stating, “Dragon and the Axiom Space Ax-4 crew are on track to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere… Dragon will also announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom prior to splashing down.”
The historic mission features a multinational crew:
- Commander Peggy Whitson (USA)
- Pilot Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla (India/ISRO)
- Project Astronaut Slawosz “Suave” Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland/ESA)
- Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu (Hungary/HUNOR Program)
During their stay aboard the ISS, the Ax-4 crew conducted over 60 scientific experiments and participated in more than 20 outreach events, according to Axiom Space. These ranged from space medicine to microgravity physics, contributing valuable data for future space missions.
NASA reported that the Dragon capsule will return with over 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and research data from the experiments conducted on board.
Axiom Mission 4 launched on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and docked with the ISS a day later.
As India marks a milestone with Gp Capt Shukla’s participation, the mission is being hailed as a significant step in international space collaboration and India’s growing presence in commercial human spaceflight.
