India, July 16 -- Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the International Space Station (ISS), is back on Earth. His 18-day mission aboard the orbital outpost as part of the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) crew wrapped up 15 July 2025, with a smooth splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of California. His safe return marked a pivotal moment for India, bringing the nation's ambitious Gaganyaan human spaceflight program significantly closer to reality.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, carrying Shukla and his three international crewmates - Commander Peggy Whitson, ESA astronaut Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski, and Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu - undocked from the ISS on July 14. The journey back to Earth took about 22...