SpaceX
Catch SpaceX Dragon spacecraft’s splashdown with Ax-3 astronauts
SpaceX today conducted a splashdown of its Dragon spacecraft back on Earth carrying Ax-3 mission astronauts. The spacecraft was recovered by recovery boat shannon after the splashdown. You can watch the parachute deployment and splashdown linked below.
Dragon’s four main parachutes have deployed pic.twitter.com/jBUShcJO5f
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 9, 2024
Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @CommanderMLA, @WalterVilladei, @TURKastro, and @astro_marcus pic.twitter.com/9fF0hIT3gK
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 9, 2024
Recovery boat Shannon approaches Dragon after safely splashing down off the coast of Florida pic.twitter.com/7y3VPjfolS
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 9, 2024
This was the third all-private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory, Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3). Two days ago, Dragon undocked from the International Space Station at 9:20 a.m. EST over the Pacific Ocean, west of Ecuador.
Dragon conducted multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison its truck and routed it back to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft also brought back over 550 pounds of NASA experiments, hardware, and other equipment.
SpaceX launched the Ax-3 mission using Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, January 18.
Ax-3 astronauts Michael López-Alegría, Walter Villadei, Marcus Wandt, and Alper Gezeravci completed 18 days aboard the orbiting laboratory after their mission.