As part of the space tourism project, NASA sent a team of 4 people to the International Space Station (ISS) within the scope of the Axiom-1 project. Although the launch was postponed 5 times for various reasons, it was successful on April 9th.
After a 20-hour journey with Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, civilian astronauts successfully docked at their target. In the Ax-1 project, the preparation of which was quite problematic, the setbacks do not end.
Four-man crew unable to return to Earth due to bad weather
Axiom -1’s four-man crew has been on the ISS since 9 April. Having completed its mandate, the team was due to return to Earth on Tuesday. However, the landing was delayed due to weather conditions off the Florida coast, where it was expected to land. The team will remain on the ISS for a while.
According to the statement, there will be a return home on Sunday with good weather forecasts for the weekend. NASA will share the details needed on Saturday. The setbacks of the program from the beginning have been a pretty bad experience for NASA. When the
Ax-1 mission was originally planned, February was chosen as the launch month. However, the launch was postponed to the last week of March due to preparations and ISS traffic. After these delays, the work continued, but on the pretext of the last talks about the preparations, the task was postponed again and shifted to April 3.
It was announced in the past days that it was postponed to April 6, stating that tests will be carried out on the launch pad. With the detailed announcement made today, the mission has been postponed for the fifth time. After all this series of delays, the launch took place on April 9th.
The 4-person private astronaut crew on the Ax-1 includes Canadian investor Mark Pathy, American entrepreneur Larry Connor, ex-Israel Air Force pilot Eytan Stibbe and a former NASA mission commander Michael López-Alegria.
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