New Delhi: SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ‘Grace’ successfully landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California on Tuesday, marking the safe return of the Axiom-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.

Earlier, SpaceX stated that set for a splashdown on earth off the coast of California in as the nosecone of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft ‘Grace’ has been closed and secured for re-entry.

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 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 their way back to Earth, as observed by Axiom Space and NASA.