New Delhi: The Axiom 4 Dragon has undocked from the zentih or space-facing port of the Harmony module on the International Space Station. The Axiom 4 mission consists of Commander Peggy Whitson, the most experienced astronaut in America, ISRO Gaganyatri Shubhanshu Shukla as the Pilot, as well as Mission Specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary. The final ingress of the crew into the brand new SpaceX Dragon, named Grace occurred about two and a half hours before the undocking, with the hatch closing shortly afterwards. The spaceship was loaded with cargo from the ISS over the week before the departure.
The undocking operation was fully autonomous, without any inputs from the crew, and was initiated at 16:45 hours IST, and was delayed by 10 minutes. There was an official sendoff ceremony before the undocking. Commander of the ISS, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi said, “On behalf of the entire Expedition 73 Crew, I would like to say a couple words. Peggy, Tibby, Shux and Suave, we really enjoyed your company, and thank you so much for bringing a lot of joy, excitement, inspiration and other positive ways of making our experience here better. And, your dedication to science and your professionalism definitely marks a new standard for the private astronaut missions, and we hope that you guys enjoyed your time being here, and we also hope that the time you spent here will become unforgettable moments in your lives.”
Departure from the ISS
The SpaceX Dragon will next execute a series of burns to leave the keep-out-sphere, an imaginary sphere about 200 metres wide, followed by the exit from the approach ellipsoid, that measures four kilometres across and two kilometres thick. These zones are used for governing the spaceships arriving and departing from the orbital complex. The Axiom 4 crew will spend about twenty two hours orbiting the Earth. The splashdown is expected to take place at 15:01 hours IST tomorrow, off the California coast. The weather conditions are favourable for a splashdown. The splashdown will also be livestreamed.