Axiom-4 mission: Shubhanshu Shukla to return to earth on July 14, says NASA

Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three other crew members of the Axiom-4 mission are set to return to earth from the International Space Station on July 14, NASA said on Thursday.

"We are working with the station program, watching the Axiom-4 progress carefully. I think we need to undock that mission and the current target to undock is July 14 after the high beta period," Steve Stitch, Manager, NASA Commercial Crew Program, told a press conference on the Crew-11 mission to the space station slated for July 31.

The Axiom-4 mission was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre at Florida on June 25 and the Dragon spacecraft docked at the International Space Station on June 26 after a 28-hour journey.

A "high beta period" for the space station refers to times when the angle between the ISS's orbital plane and the sun is high, typically above 70 degrees.

During these periods, the ISS experiences near-constant sunlight, as it spends a greater portion of each orbit in daylight. This can cause overheating and requires careful thermal management by NASA.

Shukla and his Axiom-4 crew have witnessed 230 sunrises onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and travelled nearly 100 lakh kms in space at the end of two weeks on the orbital laboratory.

The Axiom-4 crew, comprising Shukla, Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and Tibor Kapu, also took their final off-duty day on the ISS.

The Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew has completed close to 230 orbits around Earth and travelled more than six million miles (96.5 lakh kms), an Axiom Space statement said.

During his two-week stay on the space station, Shukla has interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, spoke to scientists at ISRO, addressed school students in a live session and also connect to ISRO centres using HAM radio.

"From about 250 miles above the Earth, the crew spent their downtime capturing images and video, taking in the view of our home planet below, and reconnecting with loved ones," the statement said.

These moments offer a rare pause in an otherwise rigorous daily schedule, it said.

With over 60 experiments across biomedical science, advanced materials, neuroscience, agriculture, and space technology, the Ax-4 mission includes the most research conducted on an Axiom Space private astronaut mission to date.

These investigations could transform the future of human space exploration and life on Earth, with potential breakthroughs in areas such as diabetes management, innovative cancer treatments, and enhanced monitoring of human health and performance.

As the crew resumes their scientific duties, they continue to demonstrate how commercial missions contribute meaningfully to microgravity research and space exploration.

"Every test tube, data point, and observation brings us one step closer to a global community living and working in low-Earth orbit and, eventually, beyond," Axiom Space said.