(SpaceX)
Four space tourists have returned to Earth after more than two weeks on the International Space Station - ISS.
This is the first tourist crew to travel to and from the station on a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Space tourism can be divided into two waves. The first came in the 2000s, when Roscosmos, together with Space Adventures, sent several tourist missions to the ISS.
Then, for more than a decade, tourist flights stopped and resumed only recently.
In September 2021, SpaceX sent four tourists into low Earth orbit (without visiting the ISS), and in December, Roscosmos delivered two Japanese tourists to the ISS.
On March 8, SpaceX launched the Crew Dragon spacecraft again with four tourists, this time on the ISS.
The mission was ordered by Axiom, which plans to conduct several more flights to the station in the future, and after that even create its own segment on it.
Crew commander Michael López-Alegría is on the mission as one of the leaders of Axiom Space, and the other three are private astronauts who paid an estimated $55 million for the flight.
Initially, it was assumed that the ship would return to Earth on April 19, but due to bad weather in the landing area, the return was postponed twice.
The Crew Dragon separated from the station only on April 25 and then the ship reduced its orbital speed and parachuted down.
Sources:
- SpaceX: