A SpaceX capsule carrying four astronauts on the private Ax-4 mission pierced Earth’s atmosphere on Tuesday morning (15), passing parallel to the California coast and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, completing 20 days in space.
The pre-dawn return, which shook parts of southern California with a sonic boom shortly before 2:31 a.m. (Pacific Time), concludes 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 International Space Station and coordinates with NASA on the 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 a series of pioneering feats:
• They conducted the inaugural flight of SpaceX’s newest capsule, named Grace.
• Commander Peggy Whitson extended her record for cumulative time in space by an American astronaut to 695 days. Now director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, the veteran former NASA astronaut made her fifth spaceflight.
• 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, their astronauts lived and worked aboard the International Space Station”.
While at the International Space Station, the Ax-4 crew conducted approximately 60 scientific experiments and research activities. The company claims this is the “largest amount of research and science activities” conducted to date on an Axiom spaceflight.
This was the 18th time SpaceX has launched humans into 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