Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary return with NASA veteran from space station
NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries' first ISS mission.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at around 2:30 a.m. PDT (0930 GMT) following a fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit.
The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organized by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles.
The return was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast.
Two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness and light fog with infrared cameras, slowed the capsule's final descent to about 15 mph (24 kph) moments before its splashdown off San Diego.
Minutes earlier, the spacecraft had been streaking like a mechanical meteor through Earth's lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). The astronauts' flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up.
The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, 65, who retired from NASA in 2018 after a pioneering career that included becoming the U.S. space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman ever to command an ISS expedition.
She radioed to mission control that the crew was 'happy to be back' moments after their return. A recovery ship was immediately dispatched to secure the capsule and hoist it from the ocean onto the deck of the vessel.
The crew members were to be extricated from the capsule one by one and undergo medical checkups before the recovery vessel ferries them to shore, a process expected to take about an hour.
FOUR ASTRONAUTS, FOUR NATIONS Now director of human spaceflight for Axiom, Whitson has now logged 695 days in space, a U.S. record, during three previous NASA missions, a fourth flight to orbit as commander of the Axiom-2 crew in 2023 and her fifth mission to the ISS commanding Axiom-4.
Rounding out the Axiom-4 crew were Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, 41, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary. Reuters
NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries' first ISS mission.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at around 2:30 a.m. PDT (0930 GMT) following a fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit.
The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organized by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles.
The return was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast.
Two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness and light fog with infrared cameras, slowed the capsule's final descent to about 15 mph (24 kph) moments before its splashdown off San Diego.
Minutes earlier, the spacecraft had been streaking like a mechanical meteor through Earth's lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). The astronauts' flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up.
The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, 65, who retired from NASA in 2018 after a pioneering career that included becoming the U.S. space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman ever to command an ISS expedition.
She radioed to mission control that the crew was 'happy to be back' moments after their return. A recovery ship was immediately dispatched to secure the capsule and hoist it from the ocean onto the deck of the vessel.
The crew members were to be extricated from the capsule one by one and undergo medical checkups before the recovery vessel ferries them to shore, a process expected to take about an hour.
FOUR ASTRONAUTS, FOUR NATIONS Now director of human spaceflight for Axiom, Whitson has now logged 695 days in space, a U.S. record, during three previous NASA missions, a fourth flight to orbit as commander of the Axiom-2 crew in 2023 and her fifth mission to the ISS commanding Axiom-4.
Rounding out the Axiom-4 crew were Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, 41, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary. Reuters
NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson splashed down safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday after her fifth trip to the International Space Station, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary returning from their countries' first ISS mission.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at around 2:30 a.m. PDT (0930 GMT) following a fiery reentry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit.
The return flight concluded the fourth ISS mission organized by Texas-based startup Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles.
The return was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast.
Two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness and light fog with infrared cameras, slowed the capsule's final descent to about 15 mph (24 kph) moments before its splashdown off San Diego.
Minutes earlier, the spacecraft had been streaking like a mechanical meteor through Earth's lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius). The astronauts' flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up.
The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, 65, who retired from NASA in 2018 after a pioneering career that included becoming the U.S. space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman ever to command an ISS expedition.
She radioed to mission control that the crew was 'happy to be back' moments after their return. A recovery ship was immediately dispatched to secure the capsule and hoist it from the ocean onto the deck of the vessel.
The crew members were to be extricated from the capsule one by one and undergo medical checkups before the recovery vessel ferries them to shore, a process expected to take about an hour.
FOUR ASTRONAUTS, FOUR NATIONS Now director of human spaceflight for Axiom, Whitson has now logged 695 days in space, a U.S. record, during three previous NASA missions, a fourth flight to orbit as commander of the Axiom-2 crew in 2023 and her fifth mission to the ISS commanding Axiom-4.
Rounding out the Axiom-4 crew were Shubhanshu Shukla, 39, of India, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, 41, of Poland, and Tibor Kapu, 33, of Hungary. Reuters
comments
Astronauts from India, Poland, Hungary return with NASA veteran from space station
comments