All-private astronaut team returns to Earth from landmark International Space Station visit
- The SpaceX capsule carrying the four-man crew splashed down in the Atlantic after a two-week trip hailed as a milestone in commercial space flight
- The team consists of retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, tech entrepreneur Larry Connor, investor-philanthropist Eytan Stibbe and businessman Mark Pathy
The first all-private astronaut team ever flown aboard the International Space Station (ISS) splashed down in the Atlantic off Florida’s coast on Monday, completing a two-week science mission hailed as a milestone in commercial space flight.
The SpaceX crew capsule carrying the four-man team, led by a retired Nasa astronaut who is now vice-president of the Texas company behind the mission, Axiom Space, parachuted into the sea after a 16-hour descent from orbit.
The splashdown, carried live by a joint Axiom-SpaceX webcast, was originally planned for last Wednesday, but the return flight was delayed due to unfavourable weather.
The return from orbit followed a plunge through Earth’s atmosphere generating frictional heat that was expected to have sent temperatures surrounding the outside the capsule soaring to 1,927 degrees Celsius (3,500 degrees Fahrenheit). The astronauts’ flight suits are designed to keep them cool as the cabin heats up.
Two sets of parachutes released in the final stage of the capsule’s descent slowed its fall to about 24km/h (15mph) before splashdown off the coast of Jacksonville.