NEW YORK, February 9. /TASS/. SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying the crew of Axiom Space's third commercial mission has returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) after almost three weeks, according to the live broadcast on the SpaceX website.
At 4:20 p.m. Moscow time (1:20 p.m. GMT), the spacecraft entered the atmosphere, and a few minutes later its main parachutes were opened at an altitude of about 5.5 kilometers. At 4:30 p.m. Moscow time (1:30 p.m. GMT), the presenter confirmed the landing of the Crew Dragon in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean near the US state of Florida. It took about two days for the ship to return to Earth.
The Falcon 9 launch vehicle blasted off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center pad in Florida at 0:49 a.m. Moscow time on January 19 (9:49 p.m. GMT on January 18). Axiom Space's third crew consists of former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria (commander), pilot Walter Villadei (Italy), mission specialists Marcus Wandt (Sweden) and Turkey’s first astronaut Alper Gezeravci.