Space spectacle: Four astronauts returned to Earth VIDEO

The Indian Shubhanshu Shukla, the Polish Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski and the Hungarian Tibor Kapu are participating in this mission, and they are accompanied by the American astronaut Peggy Whitson, who works for Axiom Space, the company that leased the flight.

SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft was scheduled to land in the Pacific Ocean, south of the California coast, around 11:31 a.m. CET, Indianexpress writes.

According to SpaceX, the spacecraft separated from the ISS on July 14 at 7:05 AM ET (4:35 PM IST), and the landing is expected to be on schedule. India's Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh, said there was a one-hour time window for any deviations.

What was Shukla's mission?

During his time on the ISS, Shukla conducted important research on space microalgae, focusing on their ability to produce food, oxygen and biofuels. The experiment involves comparing strains of cyanobacteria to understand their adaptation to microgravity conditions — knowledge that could be key to future long-duration space missions.

Message from space: "India looks proud"

In an emotional farewell message from space, Shukla said:

"41 years ago, an Indian man came into space and told us what India looks like from above. Today, India looks ambitious, it looks fearless, it looks confident, it looks proud."

The aircraft is expected to crash into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California.

The "Axiom 4" mission represents the return to space of astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary. Although this was the second spaceflight of astronauts from these countries, it was the first time they had carried out a mission on the International Space Station.