WASHINGTON — A group of four astronauts, all of them European, landed off the coast of Florida, in the United States, on Friday morning, completing the third private mission of the company Axiom Space to the International Space Station (ISS).
The mission, called Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3), was the company’s first launch in which the three paid seats were purchased by national agencies rather than wealthy individuals.
A live broadcast showed a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule called “Freedom” floating by parachute into the Atlantic Ocean, where it was intercepted and taken aboard a recovery ship.
“I am very proud of my Ax-3 crewmates who helped their agencies achieve all of their scientific objectives, technology demonstrations and outreach events,” said Axiom Chief Astronaut Michael López-Alegría, a Spanish and American national. , as well as a former NASA astronaut at a farewell ceremony before returning to Earth.
Initially, the mission was to last two weeks, but the return trip was delayed by several days due to bad weather, forcing a final 18-day stay on the ISS.
Traveling with López-Alegría was the pilot and colonel of the Turkish air forces Alper Gezeravci; Italian Air Force Colonel Walter Villadei, who had already flown to the edge of space on a Virgin Galactic space plane; and the Swede Marcus Wandt, who also represented the European Space Agency.
Countries with space programs are increasingly turning to the private sector to fulfill their space ambitions. Turkey, whose astronaut participated for the first time, celebrated the mission as a sign of its growing importance on the world stage.
The crew carried out 30 experiments, deepening knowledge about the impact of microgravity on the human body and the advancement of industrial processes, among others.
Axiom Space was founded in 2016 by Michael Suffredini, former director of NASA’s ISS program, and entrepreneur Kam Ghaffarian.
In addition to organizing private missions to the orbital outpost, the company develops spacesuits for future NASA missions to the Moon.
It is also building a commercial space station that it intends to initially dock with the ISS, then detach and orbit independently at some point before the latter retires.
The exact costs of the Ax-3 have not been disclosed, but in 2018, when the company first announced the program, which involves leasing SpaceX hardware and paying NASA for services, it set a price tag of $55 million per seat. .
Source: With information from AFP
