DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Axiom Mission 3 crew splashed down Friday morning in the Atlantic Ocean off Daytona Beach about two days after departing from the International Space Station.
The crew undocked from the ISS on Wednesday morning aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which took a 47-hour ride around the planet before Friday’s return to Earth.
The crew of four blasted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center back on Jan. 18. The crew consists of Walter Villadei, of Italy, as pilot; and Michael López-Alegría, of Spain, as commander; with mission specialists Marcus Wandt, of Sweden, and Alper Gezeravcı, of Turkey; the first all-European lineup to launch to the space station.
The crew conducted various research experiments at the space station.
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Last week, astronauts onboard the space station gave remarks and thanked the Ax-3 crew for their time onboard.
Dragon conducted multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettisoned the trunk and re-entered Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida.
It was the first Central Florida landing of a SpaceX crew capsule since the Inspiration 4 mission three years ago.
The Coast Guard stopped boaters from getting too close to the splashdown zone to prevent an issue that happened the first time a SpaceX crew capsule landed. That happened off Pensacola in 2020 and since then, no one can get within 10 miles for safety reasons.
Later this month, NASA and SpaceX will launch Crew-8 to the International Space Station. Teams are targeting a launch no earlier than Feb. 22.
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