Houston [US], July 15 (ANI): SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft Grace successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Tuesday, marking the safe return of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) crew, including pilot Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS).
The splashdown, confirmed by SpaceX, concludes a nearly 19-day mission aboard the ISS, fulfilling a significant milestone in Indo-US space cooperation. “Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @AstroPeggy, Shux, @astro_slawosz, and Tibi!” SpaceX posted on X.
Earlier, SpaceX stated that preparations for splashdown were underway as the nosecone of the Dragon spacecraft Grace had been closed and secured for reentry. The company made the announcement in a post on X, marking the final stages of the crew’s return after almost 20 days in space.
The re-entry occurred following the completion of the deorbit burn and the jettisoning of the trunk, as confirmed by SpaceX. “Dragon’s nosecone is closed and secured for reentry. Splashdown in ~26 minutes,” SpaceX noted. In another post, they added, “Dragon’s deorbit burn is complete and the trunk has been jettisoned.”
The crew returned to Earth approximately 22.5 hours after departing the ISS. On Monday, the Ax-4 crew had successfully undocked and was making their way back to Earth, as observed by Axiom Space and NASA.
In an informative blog detailing mission updates, NASA reported that the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft undocked at 7:15 am EDT (4:45 pm IST) from the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module, completing the fourth private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory — Axiom Mission 4.
Axiom Space, in a live session on X, highlighted that the Axiom-4 mission included over 60 scientific studies and more than 20 outreach events.
The Ax-4 crew comprised Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Slawosz “Suave” Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) astronaut Tibor Kapu. They were actively engaged in research and outreach activities aboard the ISS during their 18-day stay.
According to NASA, the Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted during the mission.
Axiom Mission 4 was launched on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the ISS on June 26 at 4:05 pm IST, ahead of schedule, connecting to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
(ANI)
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