Four astronauts, including a Swede, an Italian, and the first Turk to go into space, returned to Earth on Friday at the end of an 18-day private mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
A live broadcast showed SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule maneuvering gently using parachutes into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida.
The mission, named Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3), was the third of its kind organized by the American company Axiom Space and the first whose headquarters had all been financed by national agencies and not by wealthy individuals.
It was initially scheduled to last two weeks but the return journey was delayed by several days due to the weather.
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“I am very proud of my Ax-3 teammates who helped their (space) agencies to accomplish all their scientific objectives,” said mission commander, American-Spanish Michael Lopez, before returning to Earth. -Alegria.
This former NASA astronaut was employed by Axiom Space to support the three clients.
Thirty experiments carried out
Among the passengers were Alper Gezeravci, a pilot and colonel in the Turkish Air Force, Walter Villadei, a colonel in the Italian Air Force who had previously flown aboard a Virgin Galactic spacecraft, and the Swede Marcus Wandt, supported by the European Space Agency (ESA).
The crew conducted 30 experiments, notably to better understand the impact of microgravity on the human body.
Axiom Space was founded in 2016 by Michael Suffredini, a former manager of NASA's ISS program, and entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian.
In addition to organizing private missions to the space station, the company is developing suits for future NASA lunar missions.
Axiom Space also plans to build the first commercial space station, which will initially be attached to the ISS.