Shubhanshu Shukla, Axiom-4 Crew Begin Return To Earth Aboard Dragon Spacecraft

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.

Before atmospheric entry, the capsule will jettison its trunk and orient its heat shield, which will face temperatures nearing 1,600 degrees Celsius. Parachutes will be deployed in two stages: stabilising chutes at an altitude of 5.7 km, followed by the main chutes around two km.

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.

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