Hungarian Astronaut Back on Earth

The SpaceX Dragon space capsule carrying the members of the Axiom-4 mission, including Hungarian research astronaut Tibor Kapu, landed off the coast of California on Tuesday.

The space capsule, named Grace, undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 1:15 p.m. Hungarian time on Monday to begin its 22.5-hour journey back to Earth. The capsule slowly moved away from the station and then orbited the Earth independently, continuously descending to the lowest possible altitude to begin the so-called deorbit return, i.e., the actual return process.

Even before entering the atmosphere, the capsule's rear ‘trunk’, which contained solar panels and cooling radiators, detached and was destroyed in the atmosphere.

The space capsule entered the atmosphere at a speed of more than 27,000 kilometers per hour. As part of the process, communication with the astronauts was briefly interrupted, but was restored after about seven minutes. About four minutes before splashdown, the two smaller stabilizing parachutes opened, followed by the four large main parachutes. The Dragon space capsule landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego.

After splashdown, two SpaceX fast boats and the Shannon rescue ship, which was waiting nearby, arrived at the scene and lifted the space capsule onto the deck with a crane.

After the necessary preparations were made on board the rescue ship, the side door of the space capsule was opened, through which the four astronauts disembarked with the help of the rescue ship's crew and medical team. Almost an hour after landing, Tibor Kapu was the last of the astronauts to step onto the rescue ship, smiling and waving.

After initial medical examinations, the crew was taken by helicopter to shore, from where they were flown to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.