Smiling Shubhanshu Shukla emerges out of Dragon spacecraft

Waving and smiling to cameras, Shubhanshu Shukla and three different Axiom-4 mission astronauts emerged from the Dragon Grace spacecraft on Tuesday, taking their first breath of contemporary air after finishing their 20-day house sojourn.

The 39-year-old Shukla, commander Peggy Whitson and mission specialists Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary had been seen being helped out of the spacecraft by the bottom workers of SpaceX, the transporter for the mission.

The Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the San Diego coast in southern California at 3.01 PM IST, capping a 20-day house sojourn of which 18 days had been spent on the Worldwide House Station.

Quickly after the splashdown, the spacecraft was hauled up the restoration ship Shannon, the place the Axiom-4 crew got here out on a small slide and had been helped onto their ft by the bottom workers.

Shukla and the three astronauts had been seen taking tentative steps as they adjusted to gravity again on Earth after spending three weeks in weightlessness on board the house station.

The Axiom-4 crew had been present process a medical check-up on board the restoration automobile earlier than being taken ashore in a helicopter.