Shubanshu Shukla and the Axiom-4 team return to Earth

 

Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three other members of the Axiom Mission 4 crew are on their way back to Earth, following an 18-day sojourn at the International Space Station (ISS). The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying the mission astronauts, undocked from the orbiting laboratory, just minutes after the scheduled time of 4:35 PM IST on Monday, and started its ~22.5-hour journey to the planet.

 

The spacecraft executed a series of departure burns to move away from the space station. It then conducted multiple orbit-lowering manoeuvres, jettisoned the trunk, and is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of California at approximately 3:01 PM IST today (Tuesday, July 15, 2025). The descent will be controlled with parachutes deployed in two stages—stabilising chutes at 5.7 km altitude, followed by main chutes at around 2 km. Following the splashdown, the crew will be recovered by a specialised ship. The live coverage of their return will begin at 2:00 PM IST. "Dragon and the @Axiom_Space Ax-4 crew are on track to reenter Earth's atmosphere and splash down off the coast of San Diego at ~2:31 am PT tomorrow (3:01 pm IST, Tuesday)," SpaceX, the transporter for the Axiom-4 mission, said in a post on X.

 

It said the spacecraft will also announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom prior to splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The de-orbit burn is expected to take place at 2:07 pm IST over the Pacific Ocean as the spacecraft re-enters the Earth's atmosphere. Upon their arrival on earth, all four Ax-4 astronauts, including mission commander Peggy Whitson, mission pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, will undergo a seven-day rehabilitation programme under the supervision of the Flight Surgeon, as is customary for crews returning from the ISS, to help them adapt back to Earth's gravity.

 

Axiom Mission 4, jointly conducted by NASA, SpaceX, and Axiom Space, lifted off on June 25 at 12:01 PM IST from Kennedy Space Centre aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. After a nearly 28-hour journey, the Dragon spacecraft docked with the ISS at around 4:01 PM IST on June 26, 2025. The Ax-4 crew, including astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, joined NASA’s Expedition 73 team onboard the ISS to begin their mission aboard the orbiting laboratory. ISRO invested approximately Rs 550 crore for astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla's Ax-4 mission, aiming to gain critical insights for India's ambitious human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, slated for launch in 2027. To ensure mission safety and reliability, ISRO plans to conduct at least three uncrewed test flights this year to rigorously evaluate the spacecraft's systems and hardware.