First commercial astronauts to return to Earth after string of splashdown delays
The world’s first commercial astronauts are due to return to Earth tomorrow, after several splashdown delays over poor weather.
The Ax-1 crew, which consists of three high-paying customers via commercial space firm Axiom and two space veterans, will be spend another night on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA confirmed last night.
After spending a few extra days aboard the ISS, the crew will undock from the station and begin their journey home in SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft, before splashing-down off the coat of Florida around midday on Monday.
All players – NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX – agreed to halt the undocking.
The mission was NASA’s first-ever private sector launch to ISS, as the US space agency looks to further commercialise outer space.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said minutes ahead of the landmark mission that it would be the first step in the space agency’s ability to “lease space” on a commercial level.
“We’re taking commercial business of the face of the Earth and up into space,” he told an interviewer prior to the launch. “We want to get NASA out of LEO (low Earth orbit) and off into the heavens.”
The supposed 10-day mission has now reached day 17, as the space tourists – Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe; Canadian investor Mark Pathy; and US real estate magnate Larry Connor – really get the bang out of their buck.
Axiom Space previously disclosed a price of $55m (£42m) per seat for the 10-day trip of a lifetime, however, the company has declined to comment on the figure for this specific, historic, mission.
Axiom Space, which has separately teamed up with London’s Space Entertainment Enterprise for their own commercial space station, provided all the necessary training, coordinated flights and booked the rocket rides with SpaceX for the 20-hour flight to the ISS.