The return journey of Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three other crew members of the Axiom-4 mission began a short while ago. SpaceX, in its post on X, confirmed that Dragon, the crew capsule, has separated from the International Space Station (ISS). It said that the spacecraft will now execute a series of departure burns to move away from the space station. It added that Dragon will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down in around 22.5 hours off the coast of California tiomorrow.
After landing, Group Captain Shukla, along with other crew members, will undergo a 7-day rehabilitation programme under the supervision of the Flight Surgeons to adapt back to Earth’s gravity. Group Captain Shukla is on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station. He became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station and the second Indian astronaut after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who went to space in 1984. During the journey, Group Captain Shukla conducted seven India-specific experiments. In his farewell speech aboard ISS, Group Captain Shukla described his space journey as incredible.
Shubhanshu, on the ISS, in a farewell ceremony yesterday, said India looks full of ambition, fearless, confident and full of pride from space, astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla. Reprising the iconic words of India’s first astronaut Rakesh Sharma in 1984, he said India still looks ‘saare jahan se accha’ from above.
Axiom-4 Mission, carrying Shukla, took off for the ISS on June 26. Along with Shukla, the mission had three mother astronauts – commander Peggy Whitson from the US, and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Tibor Kapu of Poland and Hungary. The SpaceX Falcon 9, carrying the crew, was launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
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