Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary are back from space

Nasa retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries’ first ISS mission.

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A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at around 2:30 a.m. PDT (0930 GMT) following a fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit.

The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organized by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles.

The return was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast.

Two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness and light fog with infrared cameras, slowed the capsule’s final descent to about 15 mph (24 kph) moments before its splashdown off San Diego.

Minutes earlier, the spacecraft had been streaking like a mechanical meteor through Earth’s lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). The astronauts’ flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up.

The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, 65, who retired from Nasa in 2018 after a pioneering career that included becoming the US space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman ever to command an ISS expedition.