Crew consists of India's Shubhanshu Shukla, Slawosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland, Hungarian Tibor Kapu, and Peggy Whitson of the US

Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and the three other crew members of the Axiom-4 space mission were set to start their journey back to Earth on Monday, as of 4.30 pm IST. 

Steps in the process were delayed by at least 10 minutes, NASA said.

The undocking of the craft from the ISS was scheduled for anytime after 4.15 pm. 

The spacecraft will bring back over 550 pounds (250 kg) of cargo, including equipment and samples of dozens of experiments, the US space agency added.

When will the Axiom-4 crew land on Earth?

The crew had boarded the spacecraft by 4.20 pm IST; and once it leaves the ISS as per schedule, it is to make a splashdown off the coast of California on Tuesday, July 15, afternoon around 3 pm.

"The flight is likely to last around 22-and-a-half hours," NASA said.

The Axiom-4 mission began as the Dragon spacecraft, of Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, launched just after noon, Indian time, on June 25 from the Kennedy Space Center of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Florida. 

Shubhanshu Shukla took up pilot duties. The next day it docked at the ISS.

Source: Hindustantimes