Shubhanshu Shukla, Ax-4 Crew-Carrying Dragon Spacecraft on Track, to Splashdown Today: Spacex

NEW DELHI:
The Dragon spacecraft carrying IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts, part of the Axiom Space Mission-4 (Ax-4), is on track to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and will splashdown on Tuesday, said SpaceX.

Shukla, along with fellow astronauts Peggy Whitson (US), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary), boarded SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Grace” at 3:30 a.m. CT (2 PM IST) on Monday.

After an extraordinary stay aboard the orbital laboratory, the Ax-4 crew is scheduled to splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 3:01 p.m. IST (4:31 AM CT).

“Dragon and the Ax-4 crew are on track to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down off the coast of San Diego,” Space X shared in a post on social media platform X.

“Dragon will also announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom prior to splashing down in the Pacific Ocean,” it added.

The de-orbit burn is expected to take place at 2:07 pm IST over the Pacific Ocean as the spacecraft re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere.

Final preparations include detaching the capsule’s trunk (at 2:26 pm IST) and orienting the heat shield ahead of atmospheric entry, which will expose the spacecraft to temperatures nearing 1,600 degrees Celsius.

Parachutes will deploy in two stages — first stabilising chutes at about 5.7 km altitude at 2:57 pm IST, followed by the main parachutes at roughly two km before splashdown.

During his more than two weeks stay aboard the ISS, Shukla completed over 310 orbits, traversing an astounding 1.3 crore kilometres — equivalent to travelling 33 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

The crew also witnessed over 300 sunrises and sunsets from the orbital lab.

Meanwhile, ISRO on Monday noted that astronaut Shukla has completed all seven microgravity experiments and other planned activities, “achieving a milestone in the mission”.

“Experiments on Indian strain of tardigrades, myogenesis, sprouting of methi and moong seeds, cyanobacteria, microalgae, crop seeds, and voyager display have been completed as planned,” the national space agency said.