NASA has announced it will provide live coverage of the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) crew’s departure from the International Space Station (ISS) on July 14, with undocking scheduled for approximately 7:05 am EDT (4:30 PM IST). 

The Ax-4 mission is notable for including Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to visit the ISS, serving as the mission pilot. The four-member crew also features Commander Peggy Whitson (veteran NASA astronaut), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (European Space Agency, Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungarian to Orbit, HUNOR program).

Departure operations will begin with hatch closing at 4:30 am EDT (2:00 PM IST), followed by the crew entering the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft at 4:55 am EDT (2:25 PM IST). NASA’s live coverage, available on NASA+, will continue until about 30 minutes after the undocking. Afterward, Axiom Space and SpaceX will provide continued coverage of the Dragon’s re-entry and splashdown off the coast of California.

The Dragon spacecraft will return to Earth carrying over 580 pounds of cargo, which includes NASA hardware and scientific data from more than 60 experiments conducted during the mission. Over the past 17 days, the Ax-4 crew has focused on a range of research projects:

Group Captain Shukla performed centrifugation and freezing of microalgae samples to evaluate their potential for supporting life on long-duration missions.

The crew contributed to the Voyager Displays study, examining eye movement and coordination in microgravity, and collected data for the Voice in Space project, analyzing changes in vocal performance.

They participated in the Acquired Equivalence Test, a cognitive study on learning and adaptation in microgravity.

Additional research included collecting samples for human health studies, such as Human Gut Microbiota, Immune Multiomics, Muscular Stimulation, and Microbiome Profiling, all aimed at understanding how the human body reacts to spaceflight and supporting astronaut health on future long-duration missions.

Axiom Mission 4 launched on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, docking with the ISS on June 26 at 4:05 pm IST, ahead of schedule. The mission marks a significant milestone, with Shukla becoming the first Indian on the ISS and only the second Indian in space after Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 mission.

The Ax-4 crew’s return will be closely followed, both for its scientific contributions and its symbolic importance in international space collaboration and India’s growing presence in human spaceflight.

Based On ANI Report