July 14, 2025 at 7:40 AM EDT The four private visitors to the International Space Station of the Axiom Space Ax-4 mission are headed back to Earth riding home on the newest SpaceX Crew Dragon making its first return home. Former NASA astronaut and now Axiom Space employee Peggy Whitson climbed aboard Crew Dragon Grace early Monday along with customers Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski or Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. They undocked from the station at 7:15 a.m. EDT, and now the quartet have nearly another full day in space before a planned splashdown off the California coast at 5:30 a.m. EDT. Tuesday. They had arrived to the station on June 26 after having launched from Kennedy Space Center one day earlier. It has been the fourth flight for Axiom Space to visit the station, all with the help of SpaceX, which will be bring home a crewed Dragon spacecraft for the 17th time since 2020, although the first time for this newest Dragon, the fifth in the SpaceX fleet. “Thank you very much for your support. You guys are amazing.” Whitson said to the space station crew after their departure, her voice audibly shaking, adding shortly later as the Dragon drifted farther away. “Station looks beautiful.” For the 65-year-old Whitson, it means she will have surpassed 695 days in space during her career having flown on three NASA missions and two for Axiom Space, all to the space station. She already held the record for most days in space by any American as well as most days for any woman. She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame just weeks before the launch. For her three customers, it marks the end of their first spaceflights, and the first time in more than four decades their three countries’ governments have sent someone to space. They joined the seven other crew on board the station for a departure ceremony on Sunday. Dragon is now targeted to undock at ~7:15 a.m. ET pic.twitter.com/fnp0XWiBe2