The crew of the first private flight to the ISS is preparing to return to Earth

Credit: Pixabay / CC0 Public Domain

The crew of the first completely private mission to the International Space Station had to leave the orbital laboratory and return to Earth.

The three businessmen and a former NASA astronaut had spent more than two weeks at the station on a storytelling mission organized by startup Axiom Space.

A SpaceX capsule was due to disembark from the ISS at 20:55 (0055 GMT Monday) for the return voyage before landing in the ocean off the coast of Florida on Monday around 13:00 (17:00 GMT).

The four men – three who paid tens of millions of dollars each for the rare chance to take part in the mission, and former astronaut Michael Lopez-Allegria, who has dual US-Spanish citizenship – initially had to spend just eight days in a space station.

But bad weather on Earth has necessitated many delays in their return.

Private passengers Larry Connor, an American who heads a real estate company, Canadian businessman Mark Patti and Israeli former fighter pilot and entrepreneur Eitan Stibe took off from Florida on April 8, reaching the ISS a day later.

Once on board, they conducted a series of experiments in collaboration with Earth-related research centers, including for heart health and low-gravity cognitive performance, according to a NASA blog.

In particular, Patti spent considerable time in the station’s famous observation dome, photographing the Earth from 250 miles (400 kilometers) above.

The mission was named Ax-1 in homage to Axiom Space, which serves as a sort of space travel agency, paying SpaceX for two-way transportation and NASA for using the orbital space.

NASA has already given the green light in principle for a second mission: Ax-2.

The departure of the Ax-1 crew will leave seven people on the ISS: three Americans, one German and three Russians.

The sea landing of the Dragon manned capsule on Monday will be the fifth so far.

SpaceX, owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, now regularly transports NASA astronauts to and from the space station.

Last year, SpaceX launched another entirely private mission, but it simply orbited the Earth for three days without connecting to the ISS.

The first private mission is ready to be launched at the ISS

© 2022 AFP

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