America's most experienced astronaut and three international crewmates plunged back to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule early Tuesday, closing out a 20-day commercial flight to the International Space Station with a foggy Pacific Ocean splashdown.

Shukla’s mission began with a launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on July 1, as part of the privately operated Axiom Space Mission-4. His arrival at the ISS marked a national milestone — the second Indian in space since Rakesh Sharma’s 1984 mission, and the very first to reach the orbiting laboratory.