SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Rocket Returns to Earth Just 8 Minutes After Launching Axiom‑4 | Watch

Just eight minutes after the launch of Axiom-4, which carried Indian Air Force (IAF) Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and three others to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX's Falcon 9 returned home safely on Tuesday.

Axiom-4 is a private astronaut mission to the ISS. It will "realise the return" to human flight for India, Poland and Hungary. In 2023, Axiom plans to carry out about 60 scientific studies and activities representing 31 countries - from India, the US, Saudi Arabia and from countries across Europe.

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After six delays, the Axiom-4 launch finally took place on Wednesday. It was poised for a seventh delay after a software glitch blocked uploading the weather data. Fortunately, that was resolved just before launch.

The first stage Dragon Capsule of the Falcon 9 blasted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Florida's eastern coast. That is the same launch pad from where Neil Armstrong methodically blasted off 54 years ago for his trip to the moon on Apollo 11.

Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by Elon Musk's SpaceX, and is the worlds first orbital-class reusable rocket.

Falcon 9 was created with nine Merlin engines on its first stage, which is a composite structure containing pneumatic pushers that separate the first and second stages in flight, and aluminium-lithium alloy tanks that contain liquid oxygen and jet propellant (RP-1) propellant. At sea level Falcon 9 produces over 1.7 million pounds of thrust.

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The Falcon 9 has four hypersonic grid fins located at the base of the interstage.

The Falcon 9 rocket's 2nd stage has one Merlin Vacuum Engine to deliver the payload to its orbit and the 2nd stage engine only ignites a few seconds after the stage separation, also it can also ignite multiple times to place multiple payloads into separate orbits.

The Falcon 9 payload is made of carbon composite and has a fairing that protects satellites while they travel to orbit.

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