A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts on the private Ax-4 mission streaked through Earth’s atmosphere early Tuesday morning parallel to the California coast, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, ending 20 days in space.
The pre-dawn return, which rattled parts of Southern California with a sonic boom shortly before 2:31 a.m. PT, ends Axiom Space’s fourth private mission to the International Space Station, where it remained docked for 18 days.
The Houston, Texas-based commercial space company works with SpaceX for trips to the I.S.S. and coordinates with NASA for use of the station by its astronauts. Ax-4 launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 25.
In this flight, the four-person crew achieved several firsts:
• They flew the inaugural trip of SpaceX’s newest capsule, named Grace.
• Commander Peggy Whitson extended her record for cumulative time in space by a U.S. astronaut to 695 days. Now human spaceflight director at Axiom Space, the veteran former NASA astronaut completed her fifth spaceflight overall.
• She was joined on Ax-4 by astronauts from India (pilot Shubhanshu Shukla), Poland (mission specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski), and Hungary (mission specialist Tibor Kapu).
• Axiom Space notes that it was the first time in four decades that, “these nations launched national astronauts to space — and for the first time in history, their astronauts lived and worked aboard the International Space Station.”
While at the I.S.S., the Ax-4 crew conducted approximately 60 scientific experiments and research studies. The company says it is the “largest number of research and science activities” conducted to date on an Axiom Space flight.
This was the 18th time SpaceX has launched humans to orbit. The company’s next mission from Starbase, Texas, for NASA, Crew-11, is scheduled to launch in a few weeks from Kennedy Space Center for a long-duration stay on the space station.
Source: npr.org by Russell Lewis