> Science Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla has returned from the International Space Station (ISS) as the 18-day-long Ax-4 mission concluded on Tuesday. The Dragon spacecraft's splashdown was confirmed at 3:02 pm IST by mission commander Peggy Whitson in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego in Southern California. Dragon’s four main parachutes have deployed pic.twitter.com/oGfRfqCymB — SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 15, 2025 The Ax-4 left the space station at 4:46 pm IST on Monday and embarked on a 22.5 hour journey to Earth. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and Axiom-4 crew assisted out of the Dragon Spacecraft onto the recovery vehicle, after their return to the Earth from the International Space Station.#ShubhanshuShukla | #AxiomMission4 | #Axiom | #Axiom4 pic.twitter.com/4WLhBOeJGV — All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) July 15, 2025 ALSO SEE: India's Shubhanshu Shukla Completes 230 Orbits Of Earth, Travels Over 9 Million Km In Space The recovery team is now working to extract the four astronauts from the Dragon spacecraft. Once they egress, they will undergo initial medical evaluations by SpaceX's crew surgeon on the recovery ship and will be provided immediate medical attention (if needed) to re-adapt to Earth's gravity. Shubhanshu Shukla exiting the Dragon spacecraft. Image: SpaceX Over the next few hours, the Ax-4 crew will be flown to Houston, Texas where they will recover and rehabilitate until they adjust to Earth's gravity. The Ax-4 mission by Axiom Space launched on June 25 atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Apart from debutant Shukla who served as the mission pilot, it had two more first-time fliers - mission specialists Tibor Kapu of Hungary and Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland. All three rookies represented their nations in space after more than 40 years and became the first from their respective countries to enter the space station. As for Whitson, she completed her fifth mission and logged 695 cumulative days in space, most by any woman or American astronaut. They also conducted more than 60 science experiments over the last two-and-a-half weeks, making it the highest number of research conducted on Axiom Space's private mission.