MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the Florida coast Feb. 9, wrapping up a three-week private astronaut mission to the International Space Station.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom splashed down at 8:30 a.m. Eastern off the coast from Daytona Beach, Florida, concluding the Ax-3 mission for Axiom Space. The spacecraft’s reentry and descent went as planned, from a deorbit burn by the spacecraft to deployment of drogue and main parachutes.
The Ax-3 mission lifted off Jan. 18 on a Falcon 9. It was commanded by former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría, who also commanded Ax-1 in 2022. Walter Villadei, an Italian Air Force officer, was pilot. Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey and Marcus Wandt of Sweden served as mission specialists, with Wandt representing the European Space Agency as its first short-term “project” astronaut. The four conducted research and outreach activities during their more than two weeks on the station.
Poor weather extended the Ax-3 mission by nearly a week. Freedom was scheduled to undock from the ISS early Feb. 3, splashing down later that day. However, unfavorable conditions at splashdown sites delayed the undocking several days. The spacecraft departed the station Feb. 7, setting up an unusually long two-day transit back to Earth.
The splashdown wrapped up Axiom Space’s third private astronaut mission to the ISS. The company is using the flights to gain spaceflight experience ahead of installing a series of commercial modules on the ISS that will later serve as the core of a standalone space station once the ISS is retired. Axiom’s next mission, Ax-4, is planned for no earlier than this fall.
The Ax-3 mission was also the first crewed launch this year by SpaceX. During the company’s webcast of the capsule’s splashdown, SpaceX noted it is planning five or six crewed missions this year. That would include Ax-3 and Ax-4 as well as the Crew-8 mission for NASA,…
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