Space Station

A SpaceX crew capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Georgia Monday with a retired NASA astronaut and three wealthy businessmen, closing out an extended 17-day mission on the first fully commercial, non-government visit to the International Space Station.

After a nearly a week’s worth of mission extensions due to scheduling and weather factors, Axiom’s all-private crew undocked from the International Space Station at 9:10 p.m. EDT Sunday (0110 GMT Monday), heading for re-entry and a parachute-assisted splashdown off the coast of Florida at 1:06 p.m. EDT (1706 GMT) Monday.

With persistent high winds off the Florida coast, SpaceX on Saturday again waved off the undocking and return to Earth of a Dragon crew capsule from the International Space Station with four private astronauts. The decision delays the Axiom crew’s departure until no earlier than Sunday night, with splashdown Monday afternoon.

SpaceX rolled a reused Falcon 9 booster and a brand new Dragon crew capsule to their launch pad Tuesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final tests, a day after the astronauts who will ride the spacecraft to the space station arrived for pre-flight preparations.

The first NASA-sanctioned all-private crew to visit the International Space Station has had few problems adapting to weightlessness, but a non-stop schedule of proprietary research and public outreach has left little “window time” for sightseeing, their commander said Wednesday.

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft docked at the International Space Station on Saturday with four private astronauts, beginning a planned stay of at least eight days — and maybe longer — while becoming the first mission with an all-commercial crew to visit the orbiting research complex.

Less than a day after launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, four commercial space fliers arrived Saturday at the International Space Station, becoming the first all-private crew to visit the orbiting research complex. Docking of SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft with the station occurred at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT).