Three businessmen and a former NASA astronaut returned to Earth today on a SpaceX rocket after spending more than two weeks on the International Space Station in the first purely private space mission ever.
The capsule with the four passengers fell into the sea, off Florida, around 20.00 (Greek time). A SpaceX spacecraft is expected to pick them up from the Atlantic off Jacksonville.
The Ax-1 mission organized by the American company Axiom Space was the first purely private mission to the ISS. Axiom bought the vehicle from SpaceX and reimbursed Nasa for using the International Space Station.
The four crew members were three businessmen who paid tens of thousands of dollars each and former astronaut Michael Lopez-Allegria. The launch took place on April 8 from Florida and they arrived at the ISS the next day. Initially, they were scheduled to stay there for only 8 days, but their departure was postponed last week due to bad weather. They stayed a total of 15 days on the DSS and 17 on track.
“Thank you for the support you gave us in this adventure, which lasted longer and was even more exciting than expected,” said Lopez-Allegria, the mission commander, as he left the ISS. The other three members were American Larry Connor, owner of a construction company, Mar Pathi, Canadian, head of an investment company, and former Israeli pilot Eitan Stebe, co-founder of an investment fund.
They all deny the title of “space tourist” and claim that during their stay at the ISS they conducted a series of experiments, in collaboration with research centers and universities. Their work was related to aging and heart problems while Mark Pathi spent a lot of time in the famous “observatory” of the Station, to photograph the Earth.
There are now three Americans, one German and three Russian astronauts on the ISS. In the coming days the “population” of the Station will increase by four people, three Americans and one Italian.
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
Source: Capital
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