Chennai: As the entire world is waiting with bated breadth, the four member crew of Axiom Mission AX-4 piloted by decorated Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others are all set for a spectacular splashdown iff California coast today afternoon at around 3.00 PM IST, marking culmination of their 18 day Space odyssey at the Interntional Space Station (ISS).
The crew which took off from Florida on June 25, conducted about 60 experiments, including seven by India’s Shux, undocked from ISS yesterday evening after boarding the spacecraft marking their embarkment journey towards home.
After a 22.5 hr home return journey the spacecraft after undergoing several manouvres
will splashdown at Pacific Ocean off California coast, heralding new horizons in space
exploration of the four crews from India, US, Hungary and Poland further cooperation
in future missions.
This was for the first time an Indian astronaut had travelled to the ISS after 41 years
emulating Rakesh Sharma in 1984, who became the first India to travel to space.
After their successful tenture at ISS, during which ISRO said all experiments were
successful, and after a brief 10-minute delay due to some final technical checks,
the four member crew undocked on its return journey to earth
NASA said the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft undocked at 7:15 a.m. 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 (Ax-4).
Dragon slowly maneuvered away from the station into an orbital track that will
mark the return of the crew and its cargo safely to Earth, targeting a splashdown
off the coast of California today afternoon.
After a 22.5 hour journey, the crew will land at around 3.15 pm.
The Dragon spacecraft will be returning with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including
NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted during the mission.
“The four-member Axiom Mission-4 astronaut crew undocked from the space-facing
port of the station’s Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and
began their return to Earth and splashdown off the coast of California”, it said.
NASA said the departure operations commenced with the hatch closing at 4:30 a.m
EDT yesterday.
The 4-member crew–Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human
spaceflight at Axiom Space, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) astronaut
Shubhanshu Shukla, who piloted the mission on June 25 when it took off from Florida,
ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of
Poland, and HUNOR (Hungarian to Orbit) astronaut Tibor Kapu of Hungary, had
spent about two weeks in space during their mission.
Crew entered spacecraft and it was followed by hatch closing, leading to commencement
of their journey and re-entry to earth and splashdown after undergoing orbital manouvers.
After spending 18 days at the ISS, Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla
and his Ax-4 crew departed from the orbiting laboratory on onboard the SpaceX Dragon.
Yesterday, the Ax-4 crew members’ return journey to earth commenced at 4.45 p.m. IST as the Dragonmautonomously undocked from the forward-facing port of the ISS’s Harmony module and would conclude with a splashdown off the California coast today.
“After approximately 433 hours, 18 days, and 288 orbits around earth covering nearly 7.6 million miles since docking at the ISS , the Ax-4 crew is officially homeward bound,” Axiom Space said.
According to Space X, which posted the minute details of splashdwon, there are seven phases the Dragon spacecraft will encounter on its return journey to earth.
Started with departure burns, where the Dragon will perform four small burns to move away from the ISS, these burns were successfully executed and it was 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) today.
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.
The 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 will splashdown at a velocity of 27 kmph and autonomously releases its parachutes.
A Space X recovery vessel will pick up the crew from the sea afgter which they will 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.
ISRO in an update said “Post splashdown, the Gaganyatri will undergo a rehabilitation program (about 7 days) under supervision of Flight Surgeon to adapt back to Earth’s gravity”.
“ISRO’s flight surgeons are continuously monitoring and ensuring the overall health and fitness of the Gaganyatri Shux through participation in private medical/psychological conferences and he was in good health and in high spirit”.
Space X in its website said “On Monday, July 14 at 7:15 a.m. ET, Dragon autonomously undocked from the International Space Station. After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of California 22.5 hours later at approximately 2:31 a.m. PT on Tuesday, July 15.”
“Aboard the spacecraft will be Ax-4 astronauts who flew to the space station on Dragon when Falcon 9 launched the spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25 at 2:31 a.m. ET”, it said and detailed the seven phases of deorbiting manouvres that would lead to the splashdown.
A collaboration between NASA and ISRO allowed Axiom Mission 4 to deliver on a
commitment highlighted by President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
to send the first ISRO astronaut to the station.
The space agencies participated in five joint science investigations and two in-orbit science, technology, engineering, and mathematics demonstrations. NASA and ISRO have a long-standing relationship built on a shared vision to advance scientific knowledge and expand space collaboration.
The private mission also carried the first astronauts from Poland and Hungary to stay aboard the space station.
The International Space Station is a springboard for developing a low Earth orbit economy. NASA’s goal is to achieve a strong economy off the Earth where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit provides the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.
