In Collaboration with SpaceX, Axiom Space Concludes ISS Mission

HOUSTON, July 15, 2025 — Texas-based Axiom Space, which launched its fourth mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on June 25, concluded it on Tuesday.

The mission was organized by Axiom Space in collaboration with SpaceX, the private rocket venture of billionaire Elon Musk headquartered near Los Angeles.

Reuters reported that the return was carried live by a joint SpaceX-Axiom webcast.

Notably, as reported by SME Business Review last month, Axiom Space CEO Tejpaul Bhatia had called the mission “a little bit of a victory lap” for the private space company.

Smooth Landing

NASA retiree turned private astronaut Peggy Whitson, 65, joined by crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary, splashed safely in the Pacific early on Tuesday.

This was Peggy’s fifth trip to the International Space Station.

For Peggy’s crewmates from India, Poland and Hungary, it was their countries' first ISS mission.

As per Reuters, a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast at around 2:30 am PDT (0930 GMT) following a fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere that capped a 22-hour descent from orbit.

The capsule's final descent was slowed down, by two sets of parachutes, visible through the darkness and light fog with infrared cameras, to about 15 mph (24 kph) moments before its splashdown off San Diego.

Moments prior to the splashdown, the spacecraft had been zooming, similar to a mechanical meteor through Earth's lower atmosphere, generating enough frictional heat to send temperatures outside the capsule soaring to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,927 degrees Celsius), Reuters reported.

However, specially designed flight suits for astronauts, are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up.

The Axiom-4 crew was led by Whitson, who retired from NASA in 2018 after an illustrious career, during which she became the US space agency's first female chief astronaut and the first woman ever to command an ISS expedition.

Peggy Whitson radioed to mission control that the crew was "happy to be back" moments after their return. A recovery ship was immediately deployed to secure the capsule and hoist it from the ocean onto the deck of the vessel, reported Reuters.

In a process that was expected to take about an hour, the crew members were to be extricated from the capsule one by one.

Following this, the crew members had to undergo medical checkups before the recovery vessel ferries them to shore.

First Break-Even Flight

Earlier, Axiom Space had described the mission as a symbolic return to space for all three nations - India, Poland and Hungary.

On the occasion of launch of its mission, Tejpaul said it will also be Axiom Space’s first break-even flight, following three earlier missions that operated at a loss. He had asserted that these flights are a means to a larger end.

“These ISS missions are not our business model,” Tejpaul had said. “They bring in revenue, but more importantly, they help us demonstrate demand for commercial spaceflight and support our long-term goal of building Axiom Station.”

That goal involves launching commercial modules that will initially attach to the ISS before detaching to form the company’s independent space station.

Despite a lot of uncertainty surrounding the commercial space sector, Tejpaul had expressed optimism.

Responding to a query about potential NASA budget cuts and political instability, Tejpaul, few days before the mission launch, said the burden of pushing space access forward now lies with the private sector.

“It’s not that government investment will open space,” he said. “They have already done it. It’s the entrepreneurs who will use the commercial platforms to build the bridge to the next stage.”

In terms of the collaboration between the two companies, Axiom Space partnered with SpaceX to transport astronauts using its Dragon spacecraft. The company plays the role of broker and integrator, bringing together customers, launch providers, and training partners to execute these complex missions.

Tejpaul predicted that this role as a “managed marketplace” will be crucial as space access broadens. “To become multi-planetary, that’s not something where one country has all the capabilities,” he said.

SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-member team parachuted into calm seas off the Southern California coast Tuesday morning.

Inputs from Saqib Malik

Editing by David Ryder