Skip to main content

Watch the splashdown of NASA’s first private ISS mission

NASA’s first private mission to the International Space Station has ended successfully after the four-person crew splashed down in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule off the coast of Florida.

The four Ax-1 crewmembers — Canadian investor and philanthropist Mark Pathy, American entrepreneur Larry Connor, former Israeli Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe, and former NASA astronaut Michael López-Alegría — came down in the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville, Florida, at 1:06 p.m. ET (10:06 p.m. PT) on Monday, April 25.

Recommended Videos

#Ax1: The First All-Private Crew to the @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/Ud4E81YePy

— Axiom Space (@Axiom_Space) April 25, 2022

The private astronauts were met by a recovery ship and taken back to shore before being helped out of the capsule. All were said to be in good condition following their 17-day mission, which turned out to be seven days longer than originally planned after poor weather at the landing site delayed their return.

The video below shows the final few minutes of the return journey with the parachutes deployed to slow the capsule’s descent.

Ax-1 Mission | Return

“The success of this first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station is an important step in opening opportunities for space travelers and achieving NASA’s goal of enabling commercial business off the planet in low-Earth orbit,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a release.

Organized by Texas-based Axiom Space and using SpaceX hardware, NASA’s first private mission to the ISS is said to have cost each participant about $55 million.

During their time aboard the orbiting outpost, the Ax-1 crew lived alongside the station’s current team of professional astronauts, conducting a range of scientific experiments, as well as outreach and commercial activities. While aboard the station, the Ax-1 crew answered questions about what it was like living and working 250 miles above Earth.

This wasn’t the first time for nonprofessional astronauts to visit the space station, though it was the first time for NASA to be involved. American Dennis Tito became the first private citizen to stay aboard the ISS in 2001 after reportedly paying $20 million to NASA’s Russiancounterpart, Roscosmos, for a ride aboard its Soyuz spacecraft.

And toward the end of last year, a Japanese billionaire businessman and his associate paid Roscosmos for a short stay aboard the space station.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Watch SpaceX blast a Starship engine ahead of 10th flight
SpaceX tests one of its Starship rocket engines ahead of the 10th flight test.

SpaceX has just shared a short video showing a test firing of one of its six Starship engines in preparation for the rocket’s 10th flight test.

“Single-engine static fire demonstrating an in-space burn complete as Starship prepares for our tenth flight test,” the Elon Musk-led company said in a comment accompanying the video, which was posted on X on Tuesday.

Read more
SpaceX’s Starlink rival is about to launch more internet satellites — here’s how to watch
Amazon's KA-01 mission for Project Kuiper gets underway from the Space Coast.

Amazon is preparing to launch its second batch of Project Kuiper internet satellites to orbit as it seeks to build out a constellation to take on SpaceX’s Starlink service.

The KA-02 mission had been delayed due to inclement weather, but Amazon and rocket provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) appear confident that it can send the satellites skyward on Monday, June 23.

Read more
SpaceX just called off Wednesday’s crewed launch to the ISS
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket waits to launch the Ax-4 mission to the space station.

SpaceX has just announced that it’s standing down from tomorrow’s Falcon 9 launch of Axiom Space’s Ax-4 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). A new target launch date has yet to be announced.

In a post on X on Tuesday evening, SpaceX said its engineers need more time to repair the liquid oxygen leak identified during earlier booster inspections, and therefore would not be launching on June 11. Another plan to launch Ax-4 was also called off 24 hours earlier due to strong winds in the ascent corridor.

Read more