The Axiom-3 crew are finally on their way back home

Originally only planned to last 15 days on board, Axiom‘s third mission to the International Space Station undocked after 17 full days in space. The crew will spend today in orbit before making a planned splashdown tomorrow morning off of Florida’s coast.

Ax-3 departs from the ISS

Wednesday morning, after being delayed several days due to poor recovery zone weather, the Ax-3 crew departed the ISS on Dragon Freedom. The four were the first all European crew to fly to space and represented both the ESA and two other nations on the flight. As well as Michael LA, the mission commander who was a NASA astronaut but is also a Spanish citizen. Kind of a loophole there but we’ll allow it.

The Ax-3 mission was, hence the name, the third mission for Axiom Space, a Houston based company that pretty much offers a human spaceflight program for sale. Instead of a nation needing to develop a a rocket, space station, missions plans, or a team to manage everyone, Axiom will work with its partners to provide that to you.

Without Axiom, Europe would have most likely taken decades longer to develop a home built human spaceflight program with a crew rated rocket and spacecraft. However, now the ESA and agencies from Italy and Türkiye can pay Axiom to send their astronauts to space for them and provide the experiments and objectives for the mission. Axiom just had to manage the rest.

After spending over two weeks conducting various experiments and outreach events while on orbit, the crew have one more night in space before they return to Earth.

SpaceX handles operations for when it comes to launching, flying, and returning the Dragon spacecraft back home. This is one of the expected five crewed missions the company could perform in 2024. Axiom-4 is expected to launch later this year along with Polaris Dawn, which is still hopeful to fly this year. Add in the two NASA crew rotations to the ISS and that brings SpaceX to the biggest year for human spaceflight it has had yet.

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How to watch Ax-3’s splashdown?

Ax-3’s Dragon is set to splashdown at about 8:30 A.M. ET off the coast of Florida. This will wrap up a 47 hour long stay in the Dragon as they prepare for deorbit.

Coverage will begin at 7:25 A.M. ET on both SpaceX’s X profile and all of Axiom’s pages, including YouTube (praise be!). Coverage usually last through the crew being recovered and have exited the Dragon spacecraft. Although because this is a private mission, that could change.

If you live along the Gulf Coast, and you get lucky with few clouds, you could see Dragon streaking through the early morning skies. Specifically over Louisiana as the last known intended splashdown zone to be used will be off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.

Keep an eye on the official stream for updates to know where they are in the descent and remember that the stream will be delayed, up to a few minutes. You can also use a site like Flight Club to pin point you viewing location and see where in the sky Ax-3 will be flying over head.