Rookie crewmates kept things fresh for Ax-4 astronaut Peggy Whitson:

Like many lifelong learners, astronaut Peggy Whitson says she found a way to grow her space skillset — even after 695 total days in orbit.

Peggy Whitson, the commander of Axiom Space‘s fourth crewed flight to the International Space Station (ISS), says she found new perspectives on visiting her off-Earth “home” by helping the three rookies who accompanied her on the Ax-4 mission last month.

Assisting the new astronauts for 2.5 weeks “reminds you of all the experiences you had when you were first up there,” Whitson told Space.com in a livestreamed post-flight press conference on Friday (Aug. 1). “It’s always great to relive a little bit of that first time.”

Ax-4 launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 26. The mission concluded 19 days later with a Pacific Ocean splashdown off the coast of California on July 15.

Ax-4’s SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, named “Grace,” was commanded by Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and currently Axiom’s director of human spaceflight. “I’ve been there a few days,” she joked to Space.com when asked to reflect on her nearly two years of cumulative off-Earth time, which is an American record.

Among the Ax-4 rookies was pilot Shubhanshu “Shux” Shukla from India. Shukla is one of four astronauts selected for the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) first human spaceflight mission, Gaganyaan, which is scheduled to fly sometime in 2027.

“The knowledge that I’ve gained, it spans a history of human spaceflight missions,” Shukla, the first Indian astronaut to visit the ISS, said during Friday’s briefing. “The success has already started showing, wherein the [Indian] kids have already started asking questions, like, ‘How do we become astronauts?’ and ‘How do we get to be a part of this?’ I think that is also a big success for this mission.”

Ax-4’s other first-time flyers were mission specialists. Poland’s Sławosz “Suave” Uznański-Wiśniewski is a member of the European Space Agency astronaut reserve program. Tibor Kapu is a member of the Hungarian to Orbit (HUNOR) program. Both were also the first from their countries to visit the ISS.

Uznański-Wiśniewski said the ISS Expedition 73 astronauts, who have been living on the station for several months, staged a special experience for him shortly after Ax-4’s arrival.

“We were getting a first tour of the station, and then I was asked to close my eyes. I was lowered into the cupola, where the NASA crew asked me to then reopen my eyes. And there it was: The first look from cupola was my first time looking back to see Earth, to see Poland … I’ll never forget that moment. Earth is big, and so very blue.”

Kapu said he was grateful both for his time in orbit and for the support team he has at home. “I miss my family and friends the most in the past year,” he said, noting that mission debriefs mean he will not return to Hungary until mid-August.

“Obviously, there have been some rough patches; the preparation for a mission like this doesn’t always only have good days. There are some harder ones as well,” he continued, saying his personal connections helped him keep going. “Those are the people, exactly when you talk to them, they are the ones who give you energy.”

The Ax-4 quartet accomplished 60 science experiments and technology demonstrations during their time in orbit, setting an experiment record while also performing public outreach events.

Media reports suggest that Axiom Space’s next effort, called Ax-5, will launch around May or June 2026, depending on ISS scheduling. That crew has not been named; NASA does require all private ISS spaceflight missions be commanded by a retired agency astronaut, however.

One possibility could be an all-U.K. mission. In 2023, the U.K. Space Agency and Axiom signed an agreement for a potential commercially sponsored mission expected to send four U.K. astronauts aloft. Retired U.K. astronaut Tim Peake joined Axiom in 2024 as a strategic advisor, aiming to make that mission a reality.

Axiom also plans to assemble and operate its own free-flying space station as early as 2028, following up on a contract signed with NASA in 2020 as part of the agency’s efforts to eventually replace the decades-old ISS complex. Axiom accelerated its station timeline by two years this past December, by altering the order of when it will launch modules to orbit.

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., was a staff writer in the spaceflight channel between 2022 and 2024 specializing in Canadian space news. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years from 2012 to 2024. Elizabeth’s reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House, leading world coverage about a lost-and-found space tomato on the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, “Why Am I Taller?” (ECW Press, 2022) is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams.