NASA retiree-turned-private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific yesterday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries’ first ISS mission.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast following a fiery reentry through Earth’s atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit.
The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organised by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles.
Rounding out the Axiom-4 crew were Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, 41, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary.
They returned with a cargo of science samples from more than 60 microgravity experiments conducted during their 18-day visit to the ISS and due for shipment to researchers back on Earth for final analysis.
For India, Poland and Hungary, the launch marked the first human spaceflight of each country in more than 40 years and the first mission ever to send astronauts from their government’s respective space programmes to the ISS.
The participation of Shukla, an Indian air force pilot, is seen by India’s space program as a precursor of sorts to the debut crewed mission of its Gaganyaan orbital spacecraft, planned for 2027.
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