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Axiom-4 mission, featuring Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and Crewmates — veteran astronaut Peggy Whitson (U.S.) as commander, Polish engineer Sławosz Uznański, and Hungarian researcher Tibor Kapu pose for a picture ahead of undocking from the International Space Station, on July 13, 2025. Photo: X/@NASA via ANI Video Grab
Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and his Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew members who departed from the orbiting laboratory on Tuesday (July 14, 2025) onboard the SpaceX Dragon are on track to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and splash down off the coast of San Diego at 3.01 p.m. IST (2:31 a.m. P.T).
The Elon Musk-founded aerospace company said that the Dragon will also announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom prior to splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
“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 a.m. PT tomorrow. Dragon will also announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom prior to splashing down in the Pacific Ocean,” SpaceX posted.
After spending 18 days at the International Space Station (ISS), Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and Ax-4 crew members departed from the orbiting laboratory on July 14, 2025. The journey back to earth would take about 22.5 hours.
Following a series of orbital manoeuvres after undocking, Dragon is expected to splashdown at approximately 3.01 p.m. (IST) on Tuesday (July 15, 2025).
“After performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering manoeuvres, jettison the trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of California 22.5 hours later at approximately 3.01 p.m. (IST) 2:31 a.m. PT on Tuesday, July 15,” SpaceX had earlier said.
While Group Captain Shukla is the pilot for the Ax-4 mission the other crew members are Commander Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The four astronauts flew to the space station on the Dragon after it was launched by the Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida June 25, 2025.
The Ax-4 research complement includes around 60 scientific studies and activities representing 31 countries, including the U.S., India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Nigeria, UAE, and nations across Europe.
The Dragon spacecraft is now returning with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted during the mission.
Published – July 15, 2025 07:36 am IST
