Axiom-4 Mission Concludes: Group Captain Shukla Set to Return, Says Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh celebrated the successful undocking of the Axiom-4 mission and expressed the nation’s excitement for Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla’s homecoming. The spacecraft, a SpaceX Dragon, has begun its journey back to Earth. NASA reported the undocking from the ISS’s Harmony module, marking the end of the fourth private astronaut mission. The splashdown is scheduled off the California coast on July 15. Axiom Space noted over 60 scientific studies and more than 20 outreach events took place during the mission. The pilot of the spacecraft was Group Captain Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS. ISS Commander Takuya Onishi offered a farewell to the crew. Before returning to Earth, Group Captain Shukla delivered a farewell speech. The spacecraft is bringing back cargo including hardware and data from more than 60 experiments. The mission launched from Florida on June 25 and docked with the ISS on June 26.