The China Mail - Astronauts from US, India, Poland, Hungary bound for Earth

Axiom Mission 4, or Ax-4, undocked from the orbital lab at 7:15 am ET (1115 GMT) on Monday, beginning a 22.5-hour journey back to Earth.

Splashdown is scheduled for 5:31 ET (0931 GMT) in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday.

"Thank you very much for your support. You guys are amazing," Commander Peggy Whitson, an Axiom employee and former NASA astronaut, told flight controllers in Houston.

Also aboard are pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

Axiom Space is a private company that organizes missions to the International Space Station, flying both wealthy individuals and, as in this case, astronauts sponsored by their national governments.

For the non-American trio, the mission marked a return to crewed spaceflight for their respective nations after decades-long absences.

They launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 25 for what turned out to be a two-and-a-half-week mission, during which they conducted around 60 scientific experiments.

For rising space power India, the flight served as a key stepping stone toward its first independent crewed mission, scheduled for 2027 under the Gaganyaan ("sky craft") program.

Shukla held a video call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in what was widely viewed as a significant soft power moment. He recounted sharing the sweet dish gajar ka halwa with his crewmates aboard the station.

This will be only SpaceX's second crew recovery in the Pacific Ocean. The first occurred in March with the return of the Crew-9 ISS mission. SpaceX has since shifted permanently to West Coast splashdowns, citing incidents where debris from Dragon's trunk survived atmospheric reentry and crashed back to Earth.

V.Fan--ThChM