The four crew members of Axiom Space’s Ax-4 mission have departed the International Space Station (ISS) and are on their way home after an 18-day stay aboard the orbital outpost. Traveling inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon,

See the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the Milky Way galaxy in this time-lapse view from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA | edited by Space.com

The next astronaut launch to the International Space Station (ISS) is just around the corner.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate will be a commander for a SpaceX mission to the International Space Station.

An alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will command a SpaceX flight at the end of this month NASA said.

The astronauts arrived at the station on June 26, about 28.5 hours after launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center atop SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on June 25. Over the last two weeks, the crew conducted more than 60 experiments focused on microalgae, microbial growth and human health and have travelled over 10 million kilometres in space.