Axiom Lands 'Gracefully': Indian Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla And Ax-4 Team Return To Earth

Hyderabad: Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla has landed on Earth along with three other members of the Axiom-4 Mission as Dragon 'Grace' spacecraft safely splashed off the coast of San Diego, California. The landing was facilitated by the deployment of Drogue Parachutes for stabilising the descent at 5.7 kilometres altitude, followed by the main parachutes at around 2 kilometres—just minutes before the SpaceX spacecraft made contact with the ocean.

After spending 18 days at the International Space Station (ISS), the Ax-4 crew left for Earth on June 14 after hatch closure around 2:50 AM IST (Indian Standard Time) and an autonomous undocking from the International Space Station, just a few minutes after the scheduled timing of 4:35 PM IST. Post-docking, the crew's journey towards Earth started with the spacecraft performing a series of departure burns to move away from the space station, followed by orbit-lowering manoeuvres. The de-orbit burn happened at around 2:07 PM IST on July 15, after which the spacecraft jettisoned the trunk, closed the nosecone, and entered the Earth's atmosphere—leading to their safe landing near the scheduled time.

Following the retrieval of the crew by a specialised ship, all four astronauts, including mission commander Peggy Whitson, mission pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, will now undergo a seven-day rehabilitation programme to help them adapt back to Earth's gravity—as is customary for crews returning from the ISS.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Shukla upon his return from the space mission and called him an inspiration. In a post on X, Modi said, “I join the nation in welcoming Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as he returns to Earth from his historic mission to Space. As India’s first astronaut to have visited International Space Station, he has inspired a billion dreams through his dedication, courage and pioneering spirit. It marks another milestone towards our own Human Space Flight Mission - Gaganyaan.”

The Axiom astronauts were lifted off on June 25 at 12:01 PM IST from Kennedy Space Centre aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft (they named 'Grace' during flight) on a Falcon 9 rocket. After a nearly 28-hour journey, the spacecraft docked with the orbiting laboratory at around 4:01 PM IST on June 26, 2025. The Ax-4 crew then joined NASA’s Expedition 73 team onboard the space station and began their stay, carrying out scientific experiments.

With this mission, Shubhanshu Shukla, a serving officer (Group Captain) in the Indian Air Force, has become the second Indian national to travel to space since 1984 and the first Indian to reach the International Space Station. He has also become the Indian astronaut with the most time spent in space, surpassing astronaut Rakesh Sharma's seven-day space mission.

Shubhanshu Shukla is also part of the Indian Space Research Organisation's ambitious human spaceflight programme, Gaganyaan, slated for launch in 2027. He was selected as one of the astronauts for the Gaganyaan Mission, alongside Prashanth Balakrishnan Nair, Ajit Krishnan, and Angad Prathap.

ISRO invested approximately Rs 550 crore in the Axiom Mission 4 to send Shukla to the ISS ahead of the Gaganyaan Mission to gain critical insights for its own human spaceflight programme. The agency plans to carry out at least three uncrewed test flights this year to ensure safety and reliability, rigorously assessing the spacecraft’s systems and hardware. Just recently, it completed the Service Module Propulsion System (SMPS) for Gaganyaan, readying it for crewed spaceflight missions with a full-duration hot test for 350 seconds.