The first group of private astronauts to leave the International Space Station ISS

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying a crew of four from the Houston-based startup Axiom Space (USA), has left the ISS to return to Earth on an expected journey of 16 hours. If all goes well, the Dragon ship will land in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida at about 13:00 on April 25, US time (ie 00:00 on April 26, Vietnam time).

The flight to bring the private astronauts back to Earth was delayed for several days due to unfavorable weather at the landing site.

On April 8, the Group technology Space explorer Space X made a special flight to bring the first private crew to the ISS. Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted Crew Dragon from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida (USA) at 15:17 GMT on April 8 (ie 22:17 on the same day in Vietnam time).

This trip, named Axiom-1, did not involve any astronauts from the US Space Agency (NASA). All four crew members are civilians, working at the commercial aerospace company Axiom Space.

The commander of the trip is Michael López-Alegría (who holds dual US and Spanish citizenship), a former NASA astronaut, made 4 trips into space and is currently Vice President of Axiom Space. The remaining three astronauts include Canadian investor Mark Pathy, American real estate investor Larry Connor and former Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe.

NASA has appreciated the partnership between Space X and Axiom Space, seeing it as an important step towards the goal of commercializing space known as “Low Earth Orbit,” thereby advancing efforts to participate in space exploration. hope to go deeper into space. Ticket price for this trip is 55 million USD/person.