USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida The crew of Axiom Mission 4 boarded their SpaceX Dragon crew capsule to undock on July 14, 2025, from the space-facing port of the ISS Harmony module. The Dragon spacecraft has more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from the 60 experiments the astronauts conducted throughout the mission. The SpaceX Dragon capsule is scheduled to make a water landing Tuesday, July 15, 2025, off the coast of California. The departure marks the end of a mission that got off the ground Wednesday, June 25, from NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral following a series of launch delays. All told, the astronauts spent 20 days at the space station conducting research and assisting Expedition 73 in station maintenance. What was the Axiom mission? Whitson, director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, commanded a crew that included Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. Shukla, Uznański-Wiśniewski and Kapu were all the first from their respective nations to ever reach the space station. The crew members had a packed schedule during their relatively brief stay at the orbital outpost that included about 60 scientific experiments developed to take place in microgravity on behalf of organizations around the world, according to Axiom Space. Most recently, the Ax-4 astronauts spent time ahead of their return voyage collecting blood samples for biomedical research, studying microalgae as a food resource for crews in space and testing fabrics for future spaceflight gear. The Dragon spacecraft is now on its way back to Earth with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from the experiments the astronauts conducted throughout the mission. When, how to watch coverage of Axiom 4 splashdown in California The SpaceX Dragon vehicle – the only U.S. vehicle capable of transporting astronauts to and from the space station – is now making its way back to Earth. Its orbital track puts it on schedule to make a water landing Tuesday, July 15, off the coast of California. NASA's return and recovery operations previously took place in Florida – where crewed missions launch – but were recently moved to the West Coast beginning with the SpaceX Fram2 mission in April.