The 4 astronauts of Axiom Area’s newest non-public mission have concluded their keep aboard the Worldwide Area Station (ISS).
Ax-4’s SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, named Grace, undocked from the ISS this morning (July 14), carrying the quartet on the final leg of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission.
Undocking occurred at 7:15 a.m. EDT (1115 GMT) right now. Grace safely maneuvered away from the orbital laboratory, which was the Ax-4’s crew’s dwelling for the previous 2.5 weeks — about half every week longer than initially anticipated. Grace carried out a sequence of deorbit burns, and is on a trajectory to return to Earth round 5:30 a.m. EDT (0930 GMT), Tuesday (July 15).
Ax-4’s commander is former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who’s now Axiom’s director of human spaceflight. “Area Station, Grace,” Whitson stated over the communication system because the Crew Dragon crossed out of the ISS’s security “keep-out sphere,” “The Ax-4 crew desires to thanks very a lot to your assist. You guys are wonderful.”
Her crewmates are pilot Shubhanshu “Shux” Shukla and mission specialists Sławosz “Suave” Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu. This was the primary spaceflight for every of these three. However Ax-4 is Whitson’s fifth mission to orbit and raises her present document for many cumulative days in house by an American to 695.
Axiom-4 Crew:
Commander Peggy Whitson
Pilot Shubhanshu “Shux” Shukla
Mission Specialist Sławosz “Suave” Uznański-Wiśniewski
Mission Specialist Tibor Kapu
Grace docked to the ISS with the Ax-4 crew aboard on June 26. Their mission, Axiom’s fourth to the house station, is an extension of the Houston-based firm’s earlier crewed flights, with analysis and science investigations geared toward furthering understandings of the microgravity atmosphere.
The Ax-4 crew took on greater than 60 experiments and know-how demonstrations with contributions from 31 completely different nations, in addition to numerous public outreach occasions, breaking a document for Axiom because it continues to hone its orbital operations.
Not solely was this the primary spaceflight for Shux, Suave and Kapu, however they have been the primary residents of their respective nations to launch on a mission to the ISS. Shux is a pilot within the Indian Air Pressure and is one in every of 4 astronauts chosen for the Indian Area Analysis Group’s (ISRO) upcoming first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan. Suave is a Polish astronaut from the European Area Company, and Tibor Kapu is a member of HUNOR, Hungary’s orbital astronaut program.
The Ax-4 mission launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on June 26 from storied Launch Complicated-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Area Heart, in Florida. The crew spent somewhat greater than a full day catching as much as the ISS, and have been scheduled to stay aboard the house station for about two weeks. Their mission lasted about 4 days longer than anticipated.
The spacecraft will now execute a sequence of departure burns to maneuver away from the @Space_Station. Dragon will reenter the Earth’s environment and splash down in ~22.5 hours off the coast of California pic.twitter.com/5Wmqr3f63ZJuly 14, 2025
Departure procedures started this morning round 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 GMT), with the Ax-4 crew coming into Grace and shutting the hatch at 5:07 a.m. EDT (0907 GMT). Now, crew and Dragon are on a 22.5-hour trajectory on the right track to splash down within the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, early Tuesday.
This may solely be SpaceX’s second West Coast crew restoration. The primary was that of the Crew-9 ISS mission in March. SpaceX has shifted completely to Pacific Ocean relatively than Atlantic or Gulf recoveries, after situations of particles from Dragon’s trunk surviving atmospheric reentry and crashing again to Earth.
The brand new reentry path minimizes the probabilities that such particles might trigger injury or damage, SpaceX representatives have stated.
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