The first group of private astronauts to leave the ISS safely return to Earth

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying a crew of 4 from the Houston-based startup Axiom Space (USA), has left the ISS to back to Earth The journey is expected to last 16 hours.

The first group of private astronauts to go up International Space Station (ISS) left space on April 24 to return to Earth, ending a two-week trip that is considered an important milestone for the operation. Astronaut Commerce.

The spacecraft’s landing gear brought the crew to the Atlantic Ocean, near Jacksonville, USA, at midnight on April 25 (Vietnam time). The astronauts were quickly taken to a waiting ship.

Plans to spend just eight days on the private crewed orbital outpost were delayed due to bad weather. In total, they stayed 17 days in orbit, including 15 days at the ISS.

Image of the International Space Station (ISS) taken by astronaut Pyotr Dubrov, member of the Roscosmos crew, taken from the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, announced on April 20. (Photo: Roscosmos / Reuters)

On April 8, SpaceX space exploration technology corporation made a special flight to bring the first private crew to the ISS.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft 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 mission is Michael López-Alegría (who holds dual US and Spanish citizenship), a former NASA astronaut, has made 4 trips to 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.

This mission marks a turning point in the operational goal of the US Space Agency (NASA), which is to commercialize the region of space known as low Earth orbit, thereby accelerating the efforts of NASA. more ambitious force to go deeper into space. Ticket price for this trip is 55 million USD/person.

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