Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla and his team have boarded the Dragon spacecraft to return from the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom-4 mission.

The spacecraft will depart the ISS in a few hours and is expected to land on Earth within 23 hours, off the coast of California on Tuesday evening (US time).

Shukla, the second Indian in space after Rakesh Sharma (1984), was joined by Commander Peggy Whitson, Slavos Ujansky, and Tibor Kapu.

During Sunday’s farewell ceremony aboard the ISS, Shukla remarked, 'See you all back on Earth soon.'