News Brief
Shubhanshu Shukla, Axiom-4 Crew Begin Return To Earth Aboard Dragon Spacecraft
From left to right: Tibor Kapu of Hungary, ISRO astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, and ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland (Pic Via NASA)
Shubhanshu Shukla and three other Axiom-4 astronauts boarded the Dragon Grace spacecraft on Monday (14 July) to start their return journey to Earth after spending 18 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), reported The New Indian express.
Shukla, serving as mission pilot, joined commander Peggy Whitson, and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary as they suited up for the 22.5-hour trip home.
The crew closed the hatch connecting the Dragon Grace spacecraft to the ISS at 2:37 PM IST. They performed final checks before their planned undocking from the orbital lab at 4:35 PM IST.
The Dragon spacecraft will undock and execute a series of engine burns to safely distance itself from the ISS before initiating re-entry procedures. Engineers designed the descent to be fully autonomous.
Splashdown is expected off the coast of California at 3:01 pm IST on Tuesday (15 July) with recovery crews standing by to retrieve the capsule using a specialised ship.
The Axiom-4 mission launched on 25 June, when a Falcon-9 rocket carried the Dragon capsule from Florida toward the ISS.
