New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) Indian astronaut and IAF Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on Tuesday returned to Earth after a historic mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), his family back home was overwhelmed with a mix of emotion including excitement, nervousness and pride.

The family members of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, in Lucknow was filled with emotion, pride, and celebration as the news came in of his safe return from the International Space Station (ISS).

Shukla, who became the first Indian astronaut in over four decades to visit the ISS, successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast at 3:00 PM IST, completing Axiom Space’s historic Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission.

After the successful landing, Shukla’s family members shared their heartfelt emotions.

Speaking to IANS, his mother, Asha Shukla, said, “The excitement is visible on our faces. We’re extremely overwhelmed with emotion, knowing that our son has finally returned to Earth. I want to thank everyone for this. I feel so happy to see my son back, after so many days. Our excitement is endless—we are very proud.”

His sister Shuchi Mishra said, “Honestly, I couldn’t sleep last night; there was just so much excitement. I have butterflies in my stomach right now. I want to thank everyone. We were waiting for this moment. He has finally come back. We are so happy.”

His father, Shambhu Dayal Shukla, also thanked everyone for the safe space sojourn.

“I want to thank God that he has finally landed back on Earth. I also want to thank everyone who has given their blessings to our child. He has returned from a place where there was little chance of coming back,” he said.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Grace” carrying IAF Group Captain Shukla and three other astronauts, part of the Axiom Space Mission-4 (Ax-4) splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 3:01 p.m. IST (4:31 AM CT).

“Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, AstroPeggy, Shux, astro_slawosz, and Tibi!” SpaceX said in a post on social media platform

Shukla, along with fellow astronauts Peggy Whitson (US), Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary), boarded SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Grace” at 3:30 a.m. CT (2 PM IST) on Monday. Shukla flew to the ISS on June 26. He also became the second Indian astronaut to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 odyssey.

Shukla, India’s first astronaut to live and work aboard the Space Station, returned after concluding an 18-day stay at the orbiting laboratory, along with his Axiom-4 crew. He splashed down near San Diego at approximately 3:01 pm IST, concluding the historic Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission.

–IANS

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