Acivilian crewthat became the first to fly to the International Space Station completed their trip on Monday with a successful splashdown off the coast of Florida, private space company Axiom announced.
“Splashdown! The #Ax1 astronauts have made a safe return to Earth in @SpaceXDragon after completing the first all-private crew mission to the @Space_Station and paving a path for a future of innovation in low Earth orbit,” they wrote onTwitterafter the astronauts returned just after 1 p.m. ET.
Their journey, part of Axiom’s Ax-1 mission, was scheduled to last 10 days but wasextendeddue to bad weather in the splashdown zone. According to multiple news outlets, high winds off the Florida coast pushed the delay of the splashdown to Monday.
“The four-member private astronaut crew is scheduled to undock from the space station at 8:55 p.m. EDT Sunday, April 24, to begin the journey home, with splashdown off the coast of Florida targeted for about 1 p.m. Monday, April 25,” said NASA in anews release.
“The integrated teams at Axiom Space, NASA, and SpaceX have agreed on the adjusted return plan based on weather for splashdown of the first private astronaut mission to visit the orbital laboratory and the return trajectory required to bring the crew and the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft back to Earth safely,” NASA added.
NASA
The four-person crew includes commander Michael López-Alegría, 63, a retired NASA astronaut and Axiom’s vice president of business development; Larry Connor, 72, a real estate entrepreneur; Mark Pathy, 52, a Canadian businessman; and Eytan Stibbe, 64, an Israeli pilot.
Connor (the mission pilot), Pathy (a mission specialist) and Stibbe (also a mission specialist) each paid $55 million for their seat on the Dragon capsule, according to a January report from theAssociated Press.
With their voyage, the crew paved a path for a future where people of diverse backgrounds and occupations can experience space.
Axiom space crew.Axiom
“Every one of them expressed such joy, like one after the other,” López-Alegría said. “You would think that after the first one did, the second one would say, ‘Okay, I know it’s coming.’ But the second one did, the third one did.”
Inside the space vehicle.NASA/YouTube
“I was sitting in my seat and I just I was overwhelmed with… It was almost like I was looking out the window. It was spectacular,” he added. “It was a really magic moment.”
López-Alegría also holds the accolade of being one of the only people who have been in both the retired Space Shuttle and the SpaceX Dragon.
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But he may find himself back in space again sometime soon: Axiom is planning more trips to the ISS and hopes to have its own space station that civilian astronauts can visit. It’s something López-Alegría believes can be beneficial for anyone who takes an out-of-this-world trip.
“You recognize these places and you don’t see borders between countries and you don’t see hunger or sickness or conflicts,” López-Alegría told PEOPLE. “It just looks peaceful.”
“I feel like if more people on the planet had that feeling,” he added, “the world would become a better place.”
You can watch coverage of the Ax-1 return onAxiomSpace.com. Coverage will be broadcast for two days in three separate segments that include the splashdown, undocking and hatch closure.
Beginning 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time Sunday, live coverage will be broadcast of the crew departing. Coverage of the hatch closure is expected to start at 6:45 p.m., addedAxiom.
Axiom added that coverage of the undocking will begin at 8:30 p.m. Sunday. As for Monday, broadcasting of the Dragon’s re-entry and splashdown will kick-off at noon.
source: people.com
