After spending 18 days on the International Space Station (ISS), Indian astronaut Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and his Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew members departed from the orbiting laboratory on Monday (July 14, 2025) onboard the SpaceX Dragon.
Watch | Axiom-4 mission: Shubhanshu Shukla head back to Earth
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The Hindu
The Ax-4 crew members’ return journey to earth commenced at 4.45 p.m. IST because the Dragon autonomously undocked from the forward-facing port of the ISS’s Harmony module and would conclude with a splashdown off the California coast on Tuesday (July 15, 2025).
The journey back to earth would take about 22.5 hours. Following a sequence of orbital manoeuvres after undocking, Dragon is anticipated to splash down roughly at 3 p.m. IST on Tuesday (July 15, 2025).
On Monday (July 14, 2025), Group Captain Shukla, who’s the pilot for the Ax-4 mission and different crew members Commander Peggy Whitson of the U.S., Mission Specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, and Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary boarded the Dragon spacecraft as per schedule and suited up of their spacesuits.
A couple of minutes later at 2.37 p.m. IST, the hatch was closed between the Dragon spacecraft and the ISS in preparation for the undocking.
The undocking which was scheduled to happen at 4.35 p.m. IST was delayed for a couple of minutes and the Dragon’s detachment from the ISS happened at 4.45 p.m. A sequence of departure burns have been carried out to transfer away from the house station.
‘433 hours, 18 days, and 288 orbits’
“After approximately 433 hours, 18 days, and 288 orbits around earth covering nearly 7.6 million miles since docking with the ISS , the Ax-4 crew is officially homeward bound,” Axiom Space stated.
Post undocking from the ISS to the splashdown, there are seven phases the Dragon spacecraft will encounter on its return journey to earth.
The first one is the departure burns, the place the Dragon will carry out 4 small burns to transfer away from the ISS. These burns have been efficiently executed on Monday (July 14, 2025).
This will probably be adopted by the phasing burns by which the Dragon will carry out a sequence of orbit-lowering manoeuvrers that may line up its floor monitor with the specified touchdown location.
The subsequent can be the Deorbit burn, which is scheduled at 2.07 p.m. IST (1.37 a.m. PT) on Tuesday (July 15, 2025). In this part, the spacecraft conducts the deorbit burn for up to 24 minutes.
SpaceX stated after the spacecraft deorbit burns are accomplished, the flight laptop jettisons the trunk to safely splash down within the Pacific Ocean forward of atmospheric re-entry.
Re-entry in earth’s ambiance
The subsequent part is the re-entry part throughout which the Dragon experiences important heating and drag because it re-enters earth’s ambiance which slows the speed to the purpose of protected parachute deployment.
The penultimate part is the place 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 stated.
In the ultimate splashdown part underneath 4 principal parachutes, the Dragon splashes down at a velocity of 27 kilometres per hour and autonomously releases its parachutes.
A Space X restoration vessel will decide up the crew from the ocean, they are going to then bear their first medical checks onboard the restoration vessel earlier than flying on a helicopter back to land.
From there, the crew will probably be flown to Houston the place they are going to be reunited with their respective groups.
According to ISRO, Group Captain Shukla will bear a rehabilitation programme for a few week underneath the supervision of flight surgeons to adapt back to earth’s gravity.
