The first private astronaut crew to visit the International Space Station (ISS) has returned safely to Earth. The team flew to the ISS and back on the spaceship Crew Dragon. The SpaceX company vehicle landed as planned in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida on Monday. SpaceX also provided the Falcon 9 rocket that carried the team to orbit.
The return to Earth marked the end of a two-week science mission aboard the ISS. The flight was the first to be organized and operated by a private company involving a completely commercial astronaut crew. “Welcome back to planet Earth,” SpaceX Mission Control said in a radio message to the crew. “We hope you enjoyed the extra few days in space.” The ISS mission was supposed to last just over a week. But weather conditions kept the crew in space for more than two weeks.
Before departing the space station on Sunday night, the group thanked their seven ISS hosts, including three NASA astronauts whose own mission will end soon.
The crew was led by Michael Lopez-Alegria, a retired astronaut for the American space agency NASA. He now works as the vice president of Axiom Space, which organized and operated the ISS mission. The 63-year-old Lopez-Alegria was described as the mission commander. He was joined by the mission pilot, Larry Conner, a 72-year-old businessman and private pilot from Ohio. The other members were 64-year-old Israeli man Eytan Stibbe, a fighter pilot and 52-year-old Mark Pathy, a Canadian businessman. Stibbe and Pathy served as mission specialists.
After being helped out of the capsule(返回舱), the crew members were picked up by a recovery ship and given a quick health examination. The team was then flown to NASA in Florida for more detailed medical check-ups. “Everybody looks great and is doing reasonably well,” Axiom operations director Derek Hassmann told reporters. He described the astronauts as being “in great spirits”.
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