An all-European crew of four astronauts, including Turkey’s first, splashed down off the Florida coast on Friday morning, completing Axiom Space’s third private trip to the International Space Station.
The Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) was the company’s maiden launch, with all three paid seats bought by governmental agencies rather than wealthy individuals.
A live stream saw the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft ‘Freedom’ float down on parachutes into the Atlantic Ocean, where it was caught and carried onboard a recovery boat.
“I am very proud of my Ax-3 crewmates who helped their agencies achieve all of their science objectives, technology demonstrations, and outreach events”, Axiom’s Chief Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, a Spanish and US citizen and former NASA astronaut stated during a farewell ceremony before the crew returned to Earth.
The mission was initially scheduled to last two weeks, but the return voyage was delayed by several days due to severe weather, resulting in an 18-day stay on the ISS.
Lopez-Alegria was accompanied by Turkish pilot and Air Force colonel Alper Gezeravci, Walter Villadei, an Italian Air Force colonel who had previously gone to the edge of space on a Virgin Galactic space plane, and Marcus Wandt from Sweden, who was also representing the European Space Agency.
Nations with smaller space programmes are increasingly looking to the private sector to release their space objectives, with Turkey welcoming the mission as a sign of the country’s rising global profile.
The crew conducted 30 experiments to understand more about the impact of microgravity on the human body, advancing industrial processes, and more.
Michael Suffredini, a former NASA ISS programme manager, and entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian co-founded Axiom Space in 2016.
In addition to organizing private expeditions to the orbital outpost, the business is designing spacesuits for future NASA missions to the Moon.
It is also creating a commercial space station that will initially attach to the ISS, then separate and orbit independently sometime before the ISS is retired.
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