Axiom 4 astronauts depart space station on SpaceX Dragon, prepare for California splashdown
The four-person crew of a venture known as Axiom Mission 4 reached the orbital laboratory June 26 after launching on a SpaceX vehicle from Florida. Ahead of the spacefarers, under the command of retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, is a daylong cosmic trip ending with a water landing off the coast of California.
The mission was the latest spaceflight led by Texas-based Axiom Space, which partnered with both NASA and SpaceX – the commercial spaceflight company founded by billionaire Elon Musk. The mission, also known as Ax-4, represented the fourth time in about three years the company has sent a crew to the space station for a private research mission.
Here's what to know about the return of the Ax-4 astronauts, and how to watch their space capsule splashdown in California.
Who is Peggy Whitson? Record-holding NASA astronaut lead Axiom 4 mission to ISS
The crew of Axiom Mission 4 boarded their SpaceX Dragon crew capsule to undock at 7:15 a.m. ET Monday, July 14, from the space-facing port of the ISS's Harmony module.
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.
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.
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.
While NASA provided coverage of the undocking, the agency does not have plans to broadcast the water landing. Instead, Axiom Space will resume coverage of Dragon's re-entry and splashdown on the company's website.
Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Axiom 4 astronauts depart ISS. How to watch California splashdown
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