970x125
Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla with crew members of the Axiom-4 mission and International Space Station on July 14, 2025. Photo: X/@JonnyKimUSA via PTI.
After spending 18 days at the International Space Station (ISS), Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and his Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew members departed from the orbiting laboratory on Monday (July 14, 2025) onboard the SpaceX Dragon.
Watch | Axiom-4 mission: Shubhanshu Shukla head back to Earth
| Video Credit:
The Hindu
The Ax-4 crew members’ return journey to earth commenced at 4.45 p.m. IST as the Dragon autonomously undocked from the forward-facing port of the ISS’s Harmony module and would conclude with a splashdown off the California coast on Tuesday (July 15, 2025).The journey back to earth would take about 22.5 hours. Following a series of orbital manoeuvres after undocking, Dragon is expected to splash down approximately at 3 p.m. IST on Tuesday (July 15, 2025).On Monday (July 14, 2025), Group Captain Shukla, who is the pilot for the Ax-4 mission and other crew members Commander Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary boarded the Dragon spacecraft as per schedule and suited up in their spacesuits.A few minutes later at 2.37 p.m. IST, the hatch was closed between the Dragon spacecraft and the ISS in preparation for the undocking.The undocking which was scheduled to take place at 4.35 p.m. IST was delayed for a few minutes and the Dragon’s detachment from the ISS took place at 4.45 p.m. A series of departure burns were performed to move away from the space station.‘433 hours, 18 days, and 288 orbits’“After approximately 433 hours, 18 days, and 288 orbits around earth covering nearly 7.6 million miles since docking with the ISS , the Ax-4 crew is officially homeward bound,” Axiom Space said.Post undocking from the ISS to the splashdown, there are seven phases the Dragon spacecraft will encounter on its return journey to earth.The first one is the departure burns, where the Dragon will perform four small burns to move away from the ISS. These burns were successfully executed on Monday (July 14, 2025).This will be followed by the phasing burns in which the Dragon will perform a series of orbit-lowering manoeuvrers that will line up its ground track with the desired landing location.The next would be the Deorbit burn, which is scheduled at 2.07 p.m. IST (1.37 a.m. PT) on Tuesday (July 15, 2025). In this phase, the spacecraft conducts the deorbit burn for up to 24 minutes.SpaceX said after the spacecraft deorbit burns are completed, the flight computer jettisons the trunk to safely splash down in the Pacific Ocean ahead of atmospheric re-entry.Re-entry in earth’s atmosphereThe next phase is the re-entry phase during which the Dragon experiences significant heating and drag as it re-enters earth’s atmosphere which slows the velocity to the point of safe parachute deployment.The penultimate phase is where the parachutes deploy. “The Dragon’s two drogue parachutes deploy at 55 km above the Pacific Ocean, followed by four main parachutes that deploy at 2 km,” SpaceX said.In the final splashdown phase under four main parachutes, the Dragon splashes down at a velocity of 27 kilometres per hour and autonomously releases its parachutes.A Space X recovery vessel will pick up the crew from the sea, they will then undergo their first medical checks onboard the recovery vessel before flying on a helicopter back to land.From there, the crew will be flown to Houston where they will be reunited with their respective teams.According to ISRO, Group Captain Shukla will undergo a rehabilitation programme for about a week under the supervision of flight surgeons to adapt back to earth’s gravity. Published – July 14, 2025 03:06 pm IST
970x125
970x125
