Shubhanshu Shukla to spend a few more days on ISS, return expected not before July 14

The European Space Agency (ESA) said that its astronaut, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, one of Shukla’s colleagues on the Axiom-4 mission, will return to Germany no earlier than July 14. He will report at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) and the German Aerospace Centre where the debriefing, medical monitoring and rehabilitation after missions will be performed. ESA’s space medicine team comprising flight surgeons, physiotherapists and physical trainers will monitor Sławosz as he readapts to Earth’s gravity with a dedicated recovery programme.

The preparations and checks for the crew’s return is soon expected to unfold even as the announcement regarding the date for their return is awaited. Just like the launch, planning the crew’s return requires factoring-in of multiple parameters including the undocking of the Dragon capsule from the ISS, the space weather conditions for the return spaceflight and local weather at the launch site, among many others.

For the experiment involving the study of plant germination and early growth in microgravity, Shukla has captured images of seeds placed in the petri dish. He later inserted them into a laboratory freezer which is maintained at -80 degree Celsius. Once returned to Earth, these seeds will be cultivated over several generations to examine changes in their genetics, microbial ecosystems, and nutritional profiles, the Axiom Space said on Tuesday.

Shukla, originally selected to go to space on India’s Gaganyaan programme, also captured images for the crop seed experiment, involving the study of six seed varieties that will be grown over multiple generations upon return to Earth. This experiment proposes to identify plants which are suitable for performing genetic analysis and explore the possibilities of cultivation in space.

During their stay at the ISS, the four-membered crew have jointly continued to gather data for a range of scientific knowledge gathering exercises. This included measuring radiation exposure using the Rad Nano Dosimeter useful for assessing the safety of the astronauts, particularly those involved in long missions aboard the ISS ; tests performed to improve the understanding of mental and heart health while in space ; the human body’s adaptability capabilities to the space environment and heat transfer in microgravity through clothing. In addition, a neuromuscular electrical stimulation session was measured to explore the potential interventions to counter the muscles loss under microgravity conditions.

Axiom-4 mission is a commercial flight to the International Space Station, facilitated by US space agency NASA.