‘Inspired A Billion Dreams’: As Axiom-4 Returns To Earth, PM Modi Hails Shubhanshu Shukla | India News
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4) splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. Taking to social media, PM Modi said that he has inspired a billion dreams with his dedication. PM Modi said that as the first Indian to visit the International Space Station, Shukla has shown a pioneering spirit.
“I join the nation in welcoming Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as he returns to Earth from his historic mission to Space. As India’s first astronaut to have visited the International Space Station, he has inspired a billion dreams through his dedication, courage and pioneering spirit. It marks another milestone towards our own Human Space Flight Mission – Gaganyaan,” said PM Modi.
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS, along with this crew for the Axiom-4 mission (Ax-4) onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ‘Grace’ splashed down in the Pacific Ocean around 3pm, Indian time.
The re-entry was done following the completion of the deorbit burn and the jettisoning of the trunk.
The splashdown, confirmed by SpaceX, concludes a nearly 19-day mission aboard the ISS, fulfilling a significant milestone in Indo-US space cooperation. “Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @AstroPeggy, Shux, @astro_slawosz, and Tibi!” in a post on X.
Earlier, SpaceX stated that set for a splashdown on earth off the coast of California in as the nosecone of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ‘Grace’ has been closed and secured for reentry.
Mission Background
Axiom Space, in its live session on X, noted that the Axiom-4 mission saw over 60 scientific studies and more than 20 outreach events. The Ax-4 crew, comprising Commander Peggy Whitson, Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Slawosz “Suave” Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland, and Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) astronaut Tibor Kapu, had been actively engaged in research and outreach activities aboard the ISS as part of the mission during the past 18-days.
As per NASA, the Dragon spacecraft returns to Earth with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted during the mission. Axiom Mission 4 was launched on June 25 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the ISS on June 26 at 4:05 pm IST, ahead of schedule, connecting to the space-facing port of the station’s Harmony module.
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