Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force officer and ISRO astronaut, has made a triumphant return to Earth, concluding a groundbreaking mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

ISRO's insistence on rectifying a technical flaw in SpaceX's Falcon-9 rocket potentially saved the Axiom-4 mission from disaster.

But behind the success of this mission lies a tense standoff between Indian space agency ISRO and SpaceX over a potentially disastrous technical flaw.

Privately funded American space company Axiom Space successfully finished its Ax-4 mission on Tuesday morning, returning astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary from the International Space Station, and safely splashing down off the Californian coast.

A group of private astronauts are journeying home through outer space after spending a little more than two weeks at the International Space Station.

The four astronauts of Axiom Mission 4 were the latest to make a splashdown off the coast of California following a stint at the space station.

Axiom-4's launch, carrying Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, was delayed due to a liquid oxygen leak in the Falcon-9 rocket.

Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has returned to Earth after spending 18 days at the International Space Station. He became the second Indian after Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma to go to space since 1984 and the first Indian to go to the space station.