This was Axiom’s fourth crewed mission to the International Space Station, and lasted for more than two weeks.
Elon Musk-led SpaceX brought back the multinational crew on the Axiom-4 mission from the International Space Station on Tuesday.
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon “Grace” capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 5:32 a.m. Eastern time. This was Axiom’s fourth crewed mission to the International Space Station, and lasted for more than two weeks.
The crew included Peggy Whitson from the U.S., who was Axiom-4’s commander and is a former NASA astronaut, Shubhanshu Shukla from India, who was the pilot, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland, who was a mission specialist and is a member of the European Space Agency, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, a mission specialist.
This was the first instance in which astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary landed on the International Space Station.
Axiom-4 launched on June 26 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Grace capsule was launched using a Falcon 9 rocket and docked with the International Space Station on June 27.
The two-week mission, which was extended by four days due to favorable conditions, was designed to conduct science investigations. The four Axiom-4 astronauts carried out 60 science and technological experiments during their 18-day stay at the ISS, with contributions from 31 countries.
While SpaceX is gearing up to launch the next Starship flight in three weeks, according to Musk, the space startup will also assist NASA in rotating the ISS crew with the Crew-11 mission.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket has completed 500 missions so far. A Bloomberg report released earlier this month revealed that the Musk-led space startup is preparing to raise funds in a deal that would value the company at $400 billion. If it goes through, SpaceX would become the highest-valued privately held company in the U.S.
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