SpaceX’s First All-Private Astronaut Team Heads Back To Earth

Synopsis: The team of 4 members was sent to space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 8 and has spent several days in the International Space Station (ISS) along with the government-paid crew members including a German astronaut, 3 American astronauts, and 3 Russian cosmonauts.

The world’s first private astronaut team is all set to head back home on Monday. A SpaceX Crew Dragon Capsule which carried 4 people team to space from the Houston-based startup company Axiom Space is coming back on Monday night at about 9:10 p.m. EDT (0110 GMT Monday). The complete comeback will be a webcast live on NASA’s page in order to embark on the 16-hour return flight. The spacecraft SpaceX carrying a team of four men from a Houston-based company named Axiom Space is all set to undock from ISS after their 2-week stay. During which they were orbiting 250 miles (420 km) above Earth, at about 9 p.m. EDT.

Once before the spaceship detached from the station and was about to circle above the Earth at 250 miles (420 km) the Axiom astronauts were seen strapped into the crew cabin in their white helmets and black spacesuits. The team of 4 members was sent to space from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on April 8 and has spent several days in the International Space Station (ISS) along with the government-paid crew members including a German astronaut, 3 American astronaut, and 3 Russian cosmonauts.

Although the flight was supposed to come back to the planet a few days earlier, due to bad weather things at the splashdown zone just got delayed. However, now everything seems fine and the Dragon capsule will parachute into the Atlantic off the coast of Florida on Monday around 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT).

The team which headed to space had four members and was led by Spanish-born retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, 63, he is also Axiom’s vice president for business development. Then comes Mark Pathy, 52, Canadian businessman and philanthropist, Eytan Stibbe, 64, investor-philanthropist and former Israeli fighter pilot, and Larry Connor, 72, an aerobatics aviator and a real estate-technology entrepreneur from Ohio, was the second in command.

The private rocket company of Elon Musk, SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp) is an American Aerospace manufacturing firm that works by providing assistance to numerous pace transportation services and communication. So Ax-1 as a joint operation of Axiom and SpaceX mission was launched on April 8. 

The SpaceX company was founded by Tesla Inc electric carmaker and the CEO of the organization Elon Musk has done a contract with Axiom to complete 3 more astronaut missions in collaboration with ISS in the next two years. As per Mo Islam, head of research for the investment firm Republic Capital, the deal has been done at a very high cost and the customers will be charged $50 million to $60 million per seat for going into space.