New Delhi [India], July 15 : Programme Manager of Nehru Planetarium, Prerna Chandra, on Tuesday said that India has firmly established itself on the global space stage following the success of Chandrayaan and the Axiom-4 mission, which saw Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts safely return to Earth.
"For the first time, astronauts from three countries are part of this mission, including Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla... His experience will be invaluable for India's future space missions. After Chandrayaan's success, India has firmly established itself on the global space platform. Missions like this not only enhance our visibility but also present India as a global player," Chandra told ANI.
She added that the planetarium aims to connect the public, especially children and youth, to space missions through outreach.
"We work to connect the public, especially children and youth, to this mission. We have organised workshops and streamed the event live for students and have set up live viewing arrangements both inside and outside the dome... We also plan to invite Shubhanshu Shukla to the planetarium so that young minds can hear his journey and be inspired to dream big... As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated, India aims to make great strides in space by 2040, with missions like Gaganyaan, Shukrayaan and more in the pipeline..." she said.
On Tuesday, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft 'Grace' successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, marking the safe return of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) crew, including pilot Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS).
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 it was set for a splashdown on Earth off the coast of California, as the nosecone of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft 'Grace' has been closed and secured for reentry.
SpaceX made the announcement of the mission in a post on X, as the mission marks the final stages of the crew's return from the International Space Station (ISS) after almost 20 days in space.
The re-entry was done following the completion of the deorbit burn and the jettisoning of the trunk, as confirmed by SpaceX.
"Dragon's nosecone is closed and secured for reentry. Splashdown in ~26 minutes," SpaceX stated in a post on X.
"Dragon's deorbit burn is complete and the trunk has been jettisoned," stated another post.
The crew returned to Earth in approximately 22.5 hours from the ISS. Earlier, on Monday, the Ax-4 successfully undocked and was making its way back to Earth, as observed by Axiom Space and NASA.
In an informative blog about mission updates, NASA announced that the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft undocked at 7:15 a.m. EDT (4:45 p.m. IST) from the space-facing port of the International Space Station's Harmony module, completing the fourth private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory, Axiom Mission 4.
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.