Crew of first private flight to ISS prepare for Earth return

The crew of the first fully private mission to the International Space Station was set to leave on Sunday and return to Earth.

A group of businessmen and a former NASA astronauts spent more than two weeks on the station on a history-making mission.

The return trip from the International Space Station was scheduled to begin at 8:55 pm (0055 GMT Monday) and end at 1:00 pm (1700 GMT) on Monday.

The four men who paid tens of millions of dollars each for the rare chance to take part in the mission were originally scheduled to spend only eight days on the space.

The bad weather on Earth delayed their return.

On April 8, private passengers Larry Connor, an American who heads a real estate company, Mark Pathy, a Canadian businessman, and Eytan Stibbe, an Israeli former fighter pilot, blasted off from Florida and reached the International Space Station.

They conducted a series of experiments in cooperation with Earth-bound research centers, including on cardiac health and cognitive performance in low gravity.

Pathy spent a lot of time in the observation cupola taking pictures of the Earth.

The name of the mission was named after a space travel agency called Axiom Space, which paid NASA for the use of the space accommodations.

In principle, NASA has given the green light to the second mission, called Ax-2.

Three Americans, a German and three Russians will leave the International Space Station after the departure of the Ax-1 crew.

The fifth sea landing of a manned Dragon capsule will take place on Monday.

NASA astronauts are being regularly flown to and from the space station by the company owned by Musk.

Last year, a private mission was launched by the company, but it did not link up with the International Space Station.

There will be a new year in 2022.

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