The latest update on astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla indicates that he entered quarantine with his three crewmates in preparation for the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) launch, which was scheduled for June 10, 2025, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was set to carry the crew to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Dragon spacecraft for a 14-day mission focused on scientific experiments, outreach, and commercial activities. Shukla, an Indian Air Force Group Captain, was designated as the mission pilot for Ax-4, marking a historic milestone as the first Indian astronaut to visit
the ISS and the second Indian to travel to space, following Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 mission. He was expected to conduct seven to nine microgravity experiments in agriculture, food, and human biology, including studies on sprouting green gram (moong) and fenugreek (methi), to advance India’s space research capabilities. These experiments were intended to support ISRO’s Gaganyaan program and future human spaceflight missions. Shukla expressed gratitude to the Axiom-4 ground staff and emphasized the mission’s significance for India, stating it represents the journey of 1.4 billion Indians. The crew, including mission
commander Peggy Whitson (USA), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary), underwent rigorous training to prepare for spacecraft operations, emergency response, and ISS systems management.
He will become the first Indian astronaut to go to the ISS, and the first Indian to go to space in the last 40 years
Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, a distinguished pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF), has been handpicked as one of the four astronauts for the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) historic Gaganyaan mission—the nation’s inaugural human space flight endeavor.
Born on October 10, 1985, in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India, Shukla possesses fluency in both English and his native Hindi. His journey began when he was commissioned into the IAF fighter wing in June 2006. As a combat leader and seasoned test pilot, he boasts an impressive 2,000 hours of flight experience across various aircraft, including the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21, MiG-29, Jaguar, Hawk, Dornier, and An-32. His ascent to the rank of group captain in March 2024 reflects his exceptional contributions.
In 2019, Shukla received a momentous call from ISRO. He embarked on rigorous training at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Moscow, Russia—a year-long preparation that would shape his destiny. On February 27, 2024, Indian Prime Minister unveiled Shukla as one of the elite astronauts undergoing intensive training for India’s maiden human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, scheduled for launch in June 2025.
Shukla is honored and excited as he prepares to pilot the historic Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4) to the International Space Station (ISS), leaving an indelible mark on India’s remarkable advancements in human space exploration.
After bidding their ISS crewmates farewell, the returning astronauts floated into their Crew Dragon and undocked from the Harmony module’s space-facing port early Tuesday, at 1:05 a.m. EDT.
Starting at 5:11 p.m., the flight plan called for an automated seven-and-a-half-minute de-orbit thruster firing to slow the ship down for re-entry.
Twenty-seven minutes later, approaching the Florida Gulf Coast on a southwest-to-northeast trajectory, the Crew Dragon reached the discernible atmosphere, enduring heat shield temperatures of more than 2,500 degrees as the spacecraft rapidly slowed in the thickening air.
Nine minutes after entry, the Crew Dragon’s three main parachutes unfurled for the capsule’s final descent to splashdown in the Gulf.
Dolphins swim near a SpaceX capsule after splashdown off Florida’s Gulf Coast on March 18, 2025.SpaceX via AP
From the recovery ship, all four Crew-9 fliers were to be flown to shore by helicopter, where a NASA jet was waiting to ferry them back to Houston and the Johnson Space Center for reunions with family members and more extensive medical checks.
“Butch and Suni, enjoyed their time on station, they got to do spacewalks and they got to do lots of cool science and things like that,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s commercial crew program. “Their families, kudos to them for being resilient. … The families, a huge thank you to them. I’m sure the reunion is going to be wonderful with the families.”
Why were the astronauts stuck longer at the ISS?
Wilmore and Williams launched to the International Space Station last June 5 on the first piloted test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. The spacecraft suffered multiple propulsion system helium leaks and thruster problems during rendezvous with the space station, and NASA eventually decided to keep them on the station and to bring the Starliner down,without its crew, by remote control.
NASA launched the next crew rotation mission — Crew-9 — in September carrying just two crew members, Hague and Gorbunov, instead of four. Wilmore and Williams then joined the Crew-9 fliers aboard the ISS for a normal-duration six-month mission.
By keeping them in space as part of Crew-9, NASA was able to minimize the disruption to the ISS crew rotation sequence while maintaining a full slate of experiments and research.
NASA cleared the way for Crew-9’s return to Earth by launching four replacements — Crew-10 commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi — last Friday.
Wearing dark blue flight suits, Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi are welcomed aboard the space station after arrival early Saturday. With Crew 10 on board, Crew 9, including the two Starliner astronauts, were cleared for return to Earth.NASA
Normal practice calls for a five-day “handover” between crews so the new arrivals can be fully briefed on the ins and outs of station operations and maintenance. But in this case, handover was shortened to just one day to take advantage of predicted favorable splashdown weather in the Gulf.
The plight of the Starliner astronauts generated unprecedented interest during their extended stay in space, making headlines around the world and even promoting claims by President Trump that the crew had been “abandoned” in space by the Biden administration.
“This began when I asked Elon Musk to go up and get the abandoned astronauts, because the Biden administration was incapable of doing so,” he posted Monday on Truth Social. “They shamefully forgot about the astronauts, because they considered it to be a very embarrassing event for them.”
“Elon and I have taken on the project, sending up the SpaceX Dragon, which has successfully docked and, hopefully, while there is always danger involved in such a mission, they will soon be on their way home,” his post continued.
After splashdown, the White House tweeted: “Promise made, promise kept: President Trump pledged to rescue the astronauts stranded in space for nine months. Today, they safely splashed down in the Gulf of America, tanks to @ElonMusk, @SpaceX and @NASA!”
Mr. Trump did not mention that NASA originally planned to bring the crew home in February. But their mission was extended to March because SpaceX ran into problems with the Crew Dragon spacecraft being processed to carry the replacement Crew 10 into space.
NASA decided last month to swap out the original Crew-10 Dragon for one that was earmarked for a commercial flight later this spring.
That replacement spacecraft, the Crew Dragon “Freedom,” blasted off last Friday, carrying Crew 10 commander Anne McClain, pilot Nichole Ayers, cosmonaut Kirill Peskov and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi to the space station early Sunday.
The Crew-10 flight is what cleared the way for Crew-9 and the Starliner astronauts to come home this week — about two weeks earlier than the original Crew Dragon could have managed.
For his part, Musk backed up the president’s claims about the Biden administration “abandoning” the crew. Without offering any evidence, he said NASA turned down an offer to send up a mission specifically to get Wilmore and Williams and bring them back to Earth. No one at NASA has yet confirmed any such offer.
NASA managers have gone out of their way to avoid contradicting the president. At a post-landing news conference, Joel Montalbano, deputy associate administrate for space operations, was repeatedly asked about the president’s comments. But he chose not address any specifics.
“NASA, as an agency, we work for the president,” he said. “Whoever’s there, we work for them. We had an input from that office, we took a look at it and, you know, our job is to take all the inputs we get and operate as safe and successfully as we can.
“And that’s what we did for this administration, and that’s what we would do for any administration.”
Was this the longest any U.S. astronaut has stayed in space?
While 286 days is a long flight by normal NASA standards, it’s well short of the U.S. record for a single flight — 371 days, set by astronaut Frank Rubio in 2022-23.
Ironically, Rubio’s record was the result of another extended mission, this one the result of a major coolant leak in the Russian Soyuz he launched aboard. The Russians decided not to bring the crew down aboard their original spacecraft and instead launched a replacement.
As a result, Rubio ended up spending a little more than a full year in space, twice as long as he originally expected.
Given Williams’ two previous stays aboard the space station, she will move up to No. 2 on the list of most experienced U.S. astronauts with 608 days in space overall. Only former astronaut Peggy whitson has more time aloft, 675 days over four flights. Wilmore’s total across three flights will stand at 464 days aloft.
Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams and fellow astronaut Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nine-months, will not return to Earth before March 19, NASA confirmed.
Williams and Wilmore originally traveled to the ISS in June 2024 for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission, but their journey was significantly prolonged due to technical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
NASA’s crewed mission, SpaceX Crew-10, is targeting a March 14, 7:03 p.m. EDT launch from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission will send four astronauts – NASA’s Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov – to replace Sunita and Butch at the ISS.
Delay in rescue mission NASA had initially planned to launch Crew-10 earlier but had to delay the mission due to high winds and precipitation along the launch trajectory. In addition, SpaceX engineers had to resolve a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm for the Falcon 9 rocket at Launch Complex 39A.
NASA now reports that launch conditions are highly favorable, with a greater-than-95% chance of acceptable weather. However, forecasts predict a 50-60% chance of unfavorable conditions if the launch is postponed to March 15 or 16.
Once Crew-10 arrives and docks at the ISS on March 15, they will spend a few days adjusting before taking over operations from Crew-9, which includes Nick Hague, Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore, and Aleksandr Gorbunov.
Sunita and her crew will return to the Earth no earlier than March 19, the agency said.
NASA’s Steve Stich, manager of the Commercial Crew Program, praised the teams involved, stating,
“I am extremely proud of our NASA and SpaceX ground engineers and joint operations teams in quickly identifying and resolving issues. Their commitment to both excellence and safety is a true testament to the strength of this integrated team.”
US President Donald Trump has tasked tech titan Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring back stranded Nasa astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore from the International Space Station (ISS) and blamed the Joe Biden administration for “abandoning” them.
In what was supposed to be a 10-day mission, Williams and Wilmore have been stranded on the space station for seven months since June 2024.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has asked Musk to “go get” the two “brave astronauts” who have been “virtually abandoned” in space by the Biden administration. “They have been waiting for many months on the Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon,” the US President said.
