Four space tourists who spent nearly three weeks on the International Space Station (ISS) returned to Earth on the Crew Dragon spacecraft.. This mission was the third fully commercial flight carried out by SpaceX and Axiom Space under a contract with NASA.. SpaceX congratulated the expedition members on the social network X: “Dragon landing confirmed. Welcome to Earth!
Image source: SpaceX
The Crew Dragon spacecraft launched from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 19 at 00:49 Moscow time. On February 7, the ship undocked from the ISS. On February 9 at approximately 16:30 Moscow time, the spacecraft successfully splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. Axiom Space conducted a live broadcast of the process of returning the Ax-3 crew from the ISS to Earth.
The commander of the third tourist mission was former NASA astronaut Michael Eladio López-Alegría.. The international crew also included Italian astronaut Walter Villadei, Swedish test pilot and astronaut Marcus Wandt, as well as military and civilian pilot and engineer Alper Gezeravcı, who became the first Turkish citizen to visit in space.