The successful all-private visit to the International Space Station paves the way for future flights.
Descending under four taut parachutes, the Crew Dragon"Endeavour," carrying commander Michael López-Alegría, Ohio real estate executive Larry Connor, Canadian philanthropist Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe, the second Israeli in space, set down with a splash at 1:07 p.m. EDT to wrap up a 17-day mission.
An instant after splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville, Florida, SpaceX recovery teams race toward the the Crew Dragon to assist the crew and verify the ship is in good condition.Splashdown came a week later than originally planned because of high winds and rough seas in the available landing sites in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic and to avoid conflict with a Russian spacewalk early last week.
After a steep northwest-to-southeast trajectory across the heartland of America, the spacecraft's four main parachutes deployed and less than five minutes later, Endeavour splashed down within sight of recovery crews.With the Axiom-1 crew safely back on Earth, NASA and SpaceX are pressing ahead with plans to launch four professional astronauts to the space station Wednesday atop a Falcon 9 rocket Wednesday.
The mission was carried out with NASA's cooperation and encouragement, part of an agency initiative to spur private-sector utilization of the International Space Station and the eventual development of commercial research stations in Earth orbit.
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