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SpaceX postpones undocking of Axiom Space mission indefinitely

The crew spent 15 days at the ISS instead of the planned ten due to poor weather conditions off the coast of Florida

NEW YORK, February 6. /TASS/. The US company SpaceX has indefinitely postponed the undocking of the Crew Dragon spacecraft with a crew of four from the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom Space commercial mission due to weather conditions.

The return to Earth of Axiom Space's third commercial mission has been delayed several times due to bad weather, with the last undocking scheduled for February 6. "Due to ongoing unfavorable weather off the coast of Florida, Dragon is standing down from Tuesday's undocking from the ISS. The spacecraft and Ax-3 crew remain healthy, and [the Space X, Axiom and NASA] teams will continue to monitor weather conditions for the next available undocking opportunity," SpaceX said in a statement on its X page.

In April 2022, NASA and Axiom Space conducted the first fully commercial crew mission to the ISS. Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and businessmen Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe departed aboard Crew Dragon on April 8 and arrived at the ISS the next day. The return trip had to be rescheduled several times due to poor weather conditions off the coast of Florida. In total, the crew spent 15 days at the station instead of the planned ten.