Axiom-4 Countdown to Earth: Dragon’s nosecone closed, secured for reentry, splashdown soon

HOUSTON: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS, along with this crew for the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4), is set for a splashdown int eh Pacific Ocean off the coast of California as the nosecone of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ‘Grace’ has been closed and secured for reentry.

SpaceX made the announcement of the mission in a post on X, as the mission marks the final stages of the crew’s return from the International Space Station (ISS) after almost 20 days in space.

The re-entry was done following the completion of the deorbit burn and the jettisoning of the trunk.

“Dragon’s nosecone is closed and secured for reentry. Splashdown in ~26 minutes,” SpaceX stated in a post on X.

“Dragon’s deorbit burn is complete and the trunk has been jettisoned,” stated another post.

According to SpaceX, the crew, aboard its Dragon spacecraft, announced their arrival with a “brief sonic boom” ahead of their splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

“Dragon and the Axiom Space Ax-4 crew are on track to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and splash down off the coast of San Diego at ~2:31 a.m. PT tomorrow. Dragon will also announce its arrival with a brief sonic boom prior to splashing down in the Pacific Ocean,” SpaceX stated.

The crew currently aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, Grace, are on their return journey, which will take approximately 22.5 hours back to Earth from the ISS.

Earlier, on Monday, the Ax-4 successfully undocked and was making their way back to Earth, as observed by Axiom Space and NASA.

In an informative blog about the mission updates, NASA informed that the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft undocked at 7:15 am EDT or 4:45 pm IST from the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module, completing the fourth private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory, Axiom Mission 4.

Axiom Space, in its live session on X, noted that the Axiom-4 mission saw over 60 scientific studies and more than 20 outreach events.

The Ax-4 crew, comprising Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Slawosz “Suave” Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) astronaut Tibor Kapu, had been actively engaged in research and outreach activities aboard the ISS as part of the mission during the past 18-days.

As per NASA, the Dragon spacecraft will return to Earth with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted during the mission.

Axiom Mission 4 was launched on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.

The Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the ISS on June 26 at 4:05 pm IST, ahead of schedule, connecting to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module. (ANI)