Axiom-1 to depart from ISS today after extra days in space

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

Update Sunday April 24: The departure of the Axiom-1 mission from the International Space Station has been delayed by one more day due to continuing bad weather. The mission is now scheduled to depart today, Sunday, April 24 at 8:55 p.m. ET.

Four crew members of the first fully private space tourism mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Axiom-1, are set to head home today. The space tourists have gotten several extra days on the ISS for their money, with their departure from the space station being delayed due to bad weather. There have been poor weather conditions in the splashdown zone off the Florida coast, so the departure of the mission was pushed back several times until the weather cleared.

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Now, depending on the weather in Florida remaining good, the crew is set to depart from the station and splash down tomorrow afternoon.

The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship is pictured docked to the Harmony module's space-facing international docking adapter. — The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour crew ship is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s space-facing international docking adapter. Endeavour carried four Axiom Mission 1 astronauts, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Pilot Larry Connor, and Mission Specialists Eytan Stibbe and Mark Pathy, to the International Space Station for several days of research, education, and commercial activities. NASA

“At the conclusion of a weather briefing ahead of today’s planned undocking, NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX teams elected to wave off today’s undocking attempt due to a diurnal low wind trough which has been causing marginally high winds at the splashdown sites,” NASA wrote on Saturday, April 23. “The Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew is now targeting to undock from the International Space Station 8:55 p.m. EDT Sunday, April 24.”

Before they leave, the crew will spend their final day on the station packing up their belongings, preparing for their flight home, and taking final photos from the spacecraft’s cupola window.

There will be a livestream of the mission’s departure from the ISS available, showing both the closing of the hatch between the space station and the Crew Dragon and, two hours later, the undocking of the Crew Dragon. You can watch the livestream via NASA’s website.

If you’d like to watch the Crew Dragon splash down off the Florida coast, then Axiom will be showing a livestream of that event as well. Splashdown is scheduled for around 1 p.m. ET on Monday, April 25, and coverage will be available on the Axiom website.

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Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

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