The crew of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission, led by Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Air Force, returned safely to Earth on Tuesday when SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the California coast near San Diego at approximately 3 PM IST.
The flight was a milestone in the space history of India, with Group Captain Shukla being only the second Indian and the first to go to space and the first to the International Space Station (ISS). The astronauts had taken off on June 25 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida after several delays and stayed on board the ISS for 18 days.
A clip by Axiom Space captured the splashdown moment, with four parachutes unfurling as the Dragon spacecraft landed gently in the Pacific Ocean. The splashdown was the culmination of a 22.5-hour return from Earth following undocking from the ISS at about 4:50 PM IST on Monday.
#WATCH | In a historic moment, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and the Axiom-4 crew aboard Dragon spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean after an 18-day stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS)
(Video Source: Axiom Space/YouTube) pic.twitter.com/qLAq2tyW5S
— ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2025
Crew and Mission Information
Apart from Shukla, members of the Ax-4 crew were:
- Commander Peggy Whitson (USA),
- Slawosz “Suave” Uznanski-Wisniewski (European Space Agency astronaut from Poland),
- Tibor Kapu (Hungarian to Orbit astronaut under the HUNOR programme).
Shukla was instrumental in commanding the mission that underlined India’s rising status in space exploration. This was also the first human spaceflight for Poland and Hungary in more than four decades, as well as the first time astronauts from Poland and Hungary resided and worked on the ISS.
Scientific Success and Cargo Return
The mission returned more than 580 pounds of payload, including NASA equipment and data from more than 60 scientific experiments that were performed during the visit. The experiments are important to further research in microgravity environments, with the results expected to aid future long-duration space missions and human spaceflight programs.
NASA and Axiom Space lauded Ax-4 as a historic global achievement, the first government-sponsored flights from India, Poland, and Hungary in over 40 years.
India’s Human Space Vision
The Ax-4 mission is also a milestone for India’s human spaceflight plans, particularly with the soon-to-be-launched Gaganyaan mission under ISRO. Prime Minister Narendra Modi previously welcomed Shukla’s journey, describing it as a moment that “inspired a billion dreams”.
With this mission, Shukla now follows in the footsteps of Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, who traveled to space aboard the Soviet Salyut-7 station in 1984. Shukla’s participation in Ax-4 marks India’s return to human spaceflight after four decades, this time through an international commercial collaboration facilitated by Axiom Space, NASA, and ISRO.
Group Captain Shukla and his crew personnel will now go through a short rehabilitation and medical acclimatization phase, easing their return to Earth’s gravity from almost three weeks of being in orbit.
