Indian Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla to Return from ISS on Axiom Mission-4; NASA to Broadcast Live Departure
New Delhi(The Uttam Hindu): NASA has announced live coverage of the departure and return of Axiom Mission-4, a private space mission currently docked at the International Space Station (ISS). The crew includes four astronauts, notably India's Shubhanshu Shukla, in a historic mission symbolizing US-India space collaboration.
The spacecraft, SpaceX Dragon, is expected to undock from the ISS’s Harmony module on Monday, July 14 at 7:05 AM EDT and splash down near the California coast. The live coverage will begin at 4:30 AM EDT with hatch closure, followed by crew boarding at 4:55 AM and undocking coverage starting at 6:45 AM. After separation, Axiom Space will take over the Earth reentry and splashdown broadcast.
The crew consists of:
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and Director of Human Spaceflight at Axiom Space
Shubhanshu Shukla, ISRO astronaut
Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, ESA astronaut from Poland
Tibor Kapu, from Hungary's HUNOR program
The team spent nearly two weeks aboard the ISS, conducting over 60 scientific experiments. The Dragon capsule will return with over 580 pounds of research materials, including NASA hardware and collaborative data from joint US-India scientific projects.
This mission marks a key milestone in the implementation of the joint declaration by PM Narendra Modi and former US President Donald Trump, promising India’s participation in ISS missions. It also represents the first-ever visit to ISS by astronauts from Poland and Hungary, reinforcing Axiom-4 as a landmark in global space cooperation.