On Sunday, the Expedition’s 73 astronauts organised a traditional farewell ceremony for the Axiom-4 crew comprising Shukla, commander Peggy Whitson, and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.The Axiom-4 mission marked the return to space for India, Poland and Hungary after over four decades.”Jaldi hi dharti pe mulaqat karte hai (we will meet on earth soon),” Shukla said at the farewell ceremony onboard the ISS on Sunday.The descent of Dragon spacecraft from the ISS is designed to be completely autonomous.After undocking, Dragon will perform a series of engine burns to safely distance itself from the ISS and begin re-entry procedures.Final preparations include detaching the capsule’s trunk and orienting the heat shield ahead of atmospheric entry, which will expose the spacecraft to temperatures nearing 1,600 degrees Celsius.Parachutes will deploy in two stages — first stabilising chutes at about 5.7 km altitude followed by the main parachutes at roughly two km.Splashdown is expected off the coast of California approximately 22.5 hours after undocking and the space capsule will be recovered by a specialised ship.Shukla recalled the time when his icon Rakesh Sharma had travelled to space 41 years ago and described how India looked from there.”We all are still curious to know how India looks today from above.Aaj ka Bharat mahatvakanshi dikhta hai. Aaj ka Bharat nidar dikhta hai, Aaj ka Bharat confident dikhta hai. Aaj ka Bharat garv se purn dikhta hai.m(Today’s India looks full of ambition, fearless, confident and full of pride),” Shukla said.”It is because of all these reasons, I can say it once again that today’s India still looks ‘saare jahan se accha’,” he said.
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