Axiom Space’s private mission to the ISS Axiom-4 returns to Earth, achieving many firsts in Space history
Axiom Space, a Houston-based space company partners with SpaceX to transport its Astronauts to space and with NASA to use the International Space Station for its research Activities.
The Axiom-4 mission ended in the early hours of Tuesday morning at around 2:31 a.m. PT. The four astronauts splashed down in SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule into the pacific ocean rattling parts of southern California with a sonic boom.
Spending 20 days in space, the crew included commander Peggy Whitson, ex NASA astronaut and the director of Human spaceflight at Axiom Space and astronauts Shubhanshu Shukla of India, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
Axiom-4 set its flight on June 25th from Florida Kennedy Space Center becoming a historic mission in many aspects. For Peggy Whitson, the stay helped her extend her cumulative time in space to 695 days – the most by a US astronaut and any woman astronaut ever.
This mission flew SpaceX’s newest capsule Grace’s maiden voyage and for the astronauts on board – it was a big moment for their respective countries. This was the first time in four decades that their astronauts were launched into space and the first time ever that they lived in the Space-station.
During their stay, they carried out intensive research and experiments -most by far on any Axiom mission according to the company.
They also shared light moments with each other like eating the food from each other’s countries.
The crew returned in a Dragon spacecraft with more than 580 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 60 experiments conducted throughout the mission.
This mission also represented collaboration and international cooperation between partners
This was SpaceX’s 18th time launching humans into the orbit and they will soon be launching another manned mission, Crew-11 from Kennedy Space Station for a longer duration.
The crew’s presence in the space station will mark 25 years of continued human presence in the International Space Station. The commander, Zena Cardman, will be taking her first flight.
The crew will be participating in simulated lunar landings, vision protection strategies, and other human physiology research designed to support future Artemis lunar and Mars missions.