The first fully private team of astronauts to ever fly aboard the International Space Station – including Canadian Mark Patty – crashed safely into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida on Monday, completing a two-week scientific mission hailed as a cornerstone in commercial space.
The capsule of the SpaceX crew, carrying a four-member team led by a retired NASA astronaut who is now the company’s vice president of Texas behind the Axiom Space mission, parachuted into the sea after a 16-hour orbit.
The descent, broadcast live from a joint Axiom-SpaceX webcast, was originally scheduled for last Wednesday, but the return flight was postponed due to inclement weather.
“Welcome back to planet Earth,” SpaceX Mission Control of Southern California said on the radio. “We hope you enjoyed the extra few days in space.”
The return from orbit followed a sinking through the Earth’s atmosphere, generating frictional heat that sent temperatures around the outside of the capsule to rise by 1927 C. The astronauts’ flight suits were designed to keep them cool while the cabin warmed up.
Welcome home pic.twitter.com/y3cYvFvfYV
– @ Axiom_Space
Applause was heard from the SpaceX Air Traffic Control Center in the Los Angeles suburbs as the parachutes unfolded over the capsule in the final stage of its descent – slowing its fall to about 24 km / h – and again when the ship hit the water near the shores of Jacksonville.
A small lifeboat with a crew of three arrived at Crew Dragon minutes later to visibly secure the heat-scorched ship, which was rocking in the ocean. The capsule was lifted from the sea to the deck of a larger lifeboat about 40 minutes later, and the hatch was opened for astronauts to exit.
A camera shot from inside the capsule shows the four crew members tied up in their seats wearing their white and black helmet suits.
SpaceX, a private launch service founded by Tesla electric car maker CEO Elon Musk, delivered the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule, which transported the Axiom team to and from orbit, controlled flights and handled recovery.
Low Earth Orbit Economy
Axiom, SpaceX and NASA have cited the case as a turning point in the expansion of privately funded space trade, which is what industry insiders call the “low-orbit economy” or, in short, the “LEO economy”.
The mission’s crew was assembled, equipped and trained entirely privately by Axiom, a five-year-old Houston-based company run by NASA’s former ISS program manager. Axiom has a contract with NASA to build the first commercial addition and final replacement for the space station.
Mark Patti, a Canadian entrepreneur from Montreal, waved to students during an interview in orbit. Patty was part of a four-member crew on the International Space Station as part of the first private crew on the station, made with Texas-based Axiom Space. (Mark Patty)
The U.S. space agency provided the launch site at its Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and claimed responsibility for the Axiom crew while they were aboard the space station. NASA’s NASA crew members also joined in to help private astronauts when needed.
Axiom’s multinational team was led by Spanish-born retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Allegria, 63, vice president of the business development company. His second commander was Larry Connor, a 72-year-old technology entrepreneur and Ohio pilot assigned to the mission.
A Canadian joins the historic private mission to the International Space Station
Entrepreneur and philanthropist Mark Patti is part of a four-member crew that made history on Friday aboard the first civilian mission to the International Space Station. The mission is not just for space tourism – the crew members plan to conduct several scientific experiments during their visit. 2:03
They were joined as specialists in the mission by philanthropist investor and former Israeli fighter pilot Eitan Stibe, 64, and Canadian businessman and philanthropist Mark Patti, 52.
“It really is a dream come true,” Patty told CBC News on April 14 while in orbit. “Once we have the opportunity to look out the window, it’s just magical. It’s just indescribable. The feeling you have of looking at the Earth … and seeing the thin atmosphere around it and the complete darkness everywhere else is truly mesmerizing.”
Here is part of my interview with Mark Patty today for CBC News. pic.twitter.com/NErtYe5YtJ
– @NebulousNikki
Connor, Stib and Patty flew as clients of Axiom, which charges $ 50 million to $ 60 million on the spot for such flights, according to Mo Islam, head of research at investment firm Republic Capital, which holds stakes in both Axiom and SpaceX. .
Launched on April 8, they spent 15 days aboard the space station with seven regular, government-paid ISS crew members: three American astronauts, a German astronaut and three Russian astronauts.
The ISS has hosted several wealthy space tourists from time to time over the years.
But the Axiom Quartet was the first fully commercial team ever to be welcomed to the space station as working astronauts, bringing with it 25 scientific and biomedical experiments to be conducted into orbit. The package included research on brain health, heart stem cells, cancer and aging, as well as a technology demonstration to produce optics using the surface tension of fluids in microgravity.
It was the sixth human space flight to SpaceX in nearly two years, after four NASA astronaut missions to the ISS and the Inspiration 4 flight in September, which sent a fully private crew into Earth orbit for the first time, though not into space. station.
SpaceX has been hired to fly three more Axiom astronaut missions to the ISS over the next two years.
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