After a 17-day trip that included a week of bonus time on the International Space Station, the first crew of private astronauts returned to Earth. The mission ended at 1:06 p.m. 4:30 p.m. Today, when the Crew Dragon Endeavour splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.
Michael Lopez-Alegria was the commander for the homeward trip, accompanied by three investors who each paid $55 million for their rides: Ohio real-estate and tech entrepreneur Larry Connor, who served as the mission pilot, plus Canada's Mark.
The crew was told by the mission control operator that the mission marked the beginning of a new paradigm for human spaceflight. We hope you had a good time in space.
On April 8th, the Florida launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket began the journey of the Axiom-1. The trip was supposed to last 10 days, but was delayed due to weather concerns. The way their fares were structured meant that their customers didn't have to pay extra for the extension.
Within an hour after splashdown, the Crew Dragon capsule was pulled onto the deck of a recovery ship, and the spacefliers were helped out of their seats. It was an amazing mission according toConnor.
Paying customers have visited the International Space Station before, going all the way back to Dennis Tito's trip in 2001. The previous visits were made under the command of the Russian space agency and they used the Soyuz capsule.
This was the first time that an all-commercial crew flew to and from the station on a U.S.-built vehicle. The Inspiration4 Dragon spaceship carried a private-sector crew for an orbital trip last September, but it didn't visit the space station.
The spacefliers said that they didn't consider themselves mere tourists, because they had a full agenda for their mission. There were 26 science experiments and technology demonstrations conducted for various organizations.
The crew tried out self-assembling technology for future space habitats, devices to purify air on space stations, and technology for two-way virtual reality communication.
More than 30 outreach events and zero-gravity medical research were done by the private astronauts. They will take part in post-flight studies to gauge the effects of spaceflight on the human body.
Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space, said, "Axiom Space is incredibly proud of this mission and these astronauts, whose training rigor and commitment to a robust research portfolio set the standard for future private spaceflight."
NASA was paid for accommodations on the space station, as well as the trip to and from the space station. An equitable balance to cover a sufficient number of contingency days was included in the contract between NASA and Axiom, according to a NASA spokeswoman.
NASA negotiated the contract with a strategy that doesn't require reimbursement for additional undock delays because of the International Space Station mission objectives that could result in a delayed undock.
A group of astronauts from NASA and the European Space Agency are due to leave the space station on April 27. They will join the seven crew members who said farewell to the Axiom-1 crew on April 24. Four of the station's current residents are expected to return to Earth on another Crew Dragon after the new crew arrives.
The next private-astronaut mission is expected to occur in late 2022, or early 2023. The Texas-based company is building a space module that will be attached to the International Space Station by the year 2024. The module could be used in a future outpost called Axiom Station.
The value of this new method of access to orbit and progress toward a next-generation platform in which the benefits and products of life, work and research in space will be available to a greater number is shown by the Ax-1 mission.
The lead image is of the Crew Dragon Endeavour. The credit goes to the space company, SpaceX.
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