The 11 crew members representing the Expedition 70 (red shirts) and Axiom Space 3 (dark blue suits) crews gather for a farewell ceremony calling down to mission controllers on Earth. Credit: NASA TV
The Expedition 70 and Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) crews called down to Mission Control on Friday for a farewell ceremony as the four private astronauts target their departure for Saturday morning. (Subsequently, the undocking has been delayed until Monday, February 5, due to weather conditions off the coast of Florida.) The orbital residents aboard the International Space Station worked just half a day packing the
The SpaceX Dragon Freedom spacecraft carrying the four-member Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3) crew is pictured on January 20 approaching the International Space Station 260 miles above southern India. Credit: NASA
After undocking, López-Alegría, along with Pilot Walter Villadei and Mission Specialists Alper Gezeravcı and Marcus Wandt, will then parachute inside Dragon to the splashdown site where support personnel from Axiom Space and SpaceX await their arrival. Mission managers will receive a final weather report before giving the Ax-3 quartet the final go for a splashdown off the coast of Florida.
Mission Wrap-Up and Crew Contributions
Space station Commander Andreas Mogensen from ESA (
Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus space freighter approaches the International Space Station to deliver more than 8,200 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies, and station hardware for the Expedition 70 crew. Both spacecraft were orbiting 262 miles above the Middle East at the time of this photograph. Credit: NASA
