Shubhanshu Shukla returns to Earth after his 18-day mission to space
Writing a glorious chapter in India's space odyssey, astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla splashed down off California with Ax-4 crew members on Tuesday.
Shukla returned to Earth after spending two weeks at the ISS.
He was the first Indian astronaut to reach the ISS.
Ax-4 Mission | Return https://t.co/7OR2AJF2FM
— Axiom Space (@Axiom_Space) July 15, 2025
Confirming the development, Space X wrote on X: "Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth,@AstroPeggy, Shux, @astro_slawosz , and Tibi!"
Welcome back to Earth, #Ax4! Today the Dragon spacecraft successfully splashed down marking the end of their successful mission to the International Space Station. pic.twitter.com/eeAyPCmWgG
— Axiom Space (@Axiom_Space) July 15, 2025
Axiom Space wrote: "Welcome back to Earth, #Ax4! Today the Dragon spacecraft successfully splashed down marking the end of their successful mission to the International Space Station."
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @AstroPeggy, Shux, @astro_slawosz, and Tibi!
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 15, 2025
Group Captain Shukla, now India's newest space hero, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego in the US at approximately 3:01 pm IST aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.
Watch Dragon and Ax-4 return to Earth https://t.co/n97iYzRQv5
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 15, 2025
Shukla and his fellow crew members returned to Earth after a 22-hour journey since they undocked from the ISS on Monday.
Shukla's farewell speech
In his farewell speech, Shukla referred to the words of Rakesh Sharma and said India still looked 'sare jahan se accha' (the best place in the world) from space.
How do we take group photos in space? We cannot ask a passerby for help, so we set up a camera to take a photo every 5 seconds, get in position, then stop to smile at the camera. Looks a little chaotic, but it works! pic.twitter.com/0pJpj0o0gE
— COL Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) July 14, 2025
"It has been an incredible journey," he said in his farewell speech.
"I did not imagine all this when I started on Falcon 9 on June 25," he said.
Praising his ISS colleague, Shukla said, "It has been made incredible because of all the people involved. It was an incredible joy to be here."
"Looking back on his journey, Shukla said: "Over the past 2.5 weeks, we have done a lot of science on the station. We have done outreach activities and looked back at the Earth whenever we found time. It also seems magical to me."
Referring to the words of Rakesh Sharma, India's first astronaut to visit space, Shukla said: "41 years ago, an Indian went to space and said how India looks from space."
"We will like to know how India looks from space now. India looks ambitious, fearless, confident and proud from space today.""India still looks 'sare Jahan se accha' from space," he said.
Axiom 4 or Mission 'Akash Ganga' is the first firm step for India's Gaganyaan human space flight mission.
