The four Axiom Mission 4 astronauts. Credit Axiom Space
Axiom Mission 4, the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station supported by NASA, has completed its journey.
The four astronauts safely returned to Earth early Tuesday morning, landing in the ocean near California at 5:31 a.m. EDT in a SpaceX Dragon capsule. SpaceX recovery teams picked up both the spacecraft and the crew.
The mission included Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and current director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space; Shubhanshu Shukla from India’s ISRO; Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, a project astronaut with the European Space Agency from Poland; and Tibor Kapu from Hungary’s HUNOR program. They spent about two and a half weeks in orbit.
The crew launched on June 25 at 2:31 a.m. aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Dragon arrived at the space station about 28 hours later, docking with the Harmony module. They left the station on July 14 at 7:15 a.m. to begin their return trip.
During the mission, the astronauts conducted science experiments in microgravity, educational projects, and commercial activities. In total, they conducted around 60 research activities and brought back scientific samples and NASA cargo. The Dragon capsule will now head back to SpaceX’s facilities in Florida for checks and servicing.
source NASA
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