New Delhi, July 16 -- Astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and three others of the commercial Axiom-4 mission made a fiery return to Earth as the Dragon 'Grace' spacecraft made a splash down off San Diego coast in southern California on Tuesday, capping a 22.5-hour journey after an 18-day stay at the International Space Station.

The spacecraft carrying Shukla, commander Peggy Whitson and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary, undocked from the space station at 4:45 pm IST on Monday. "Splashdown of Dragon confirmed - welcome back to Earth, @AstroPeggy, Shux, @astro_slawosz, and Tibi,"SpaceX said on X.

Speed boats of SpaceX were seen moving towards the spacecraft to bring it to recovery ship Shannon wh...