Post Successful Undocking, Shux, Mates to Splash Down Today Afternoon

'Even stars are attainable'

- BOSKY KHANNA @ Bengaluru

AS you read this, India's Group Captain and astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla (call sign Shux) has completed over half his journey back to Earth. In a few hours from now Shux will start the exercise to descend and make a splashdown landing off California coast at 3 pm, subject to weather conditions, as a part of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) space mission—the commercial four-agency collaboration of Axiom Space, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Ax-4 mission's space capsule SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, named Grace, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 4:50 pm IST on July 14—10 minutes behind schedule due to technical reasons. After the 12 capture hooks of the space capsule were released to facilitate the undocking procedure, thrusters were manually operated by Shux and Ax-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson to enable the capsule to distance itself from the ISS.

The subsequent procedures would involve reducing the orbital altitude of Grace from 400 km. ISRO scientists familiar with the undocking procedure and the process of return to Earth, explained that after undocking, the capsule would continue to orbit as an independent entity till the thrusters are fired to reduce its speed for a safe landing. The crucial time for that would begin at 2 pm (IST) on Tuesday, an hour before the scheduled splashdown.