Israeli Astronaut Eytan Stibbe Has Safe Return To Earth After 2 Weeks In Space

Splashdown! The four astronauts of the Axiom-1 mission, including Israel’s second astronaut Eytan Stibbe, have made a safe return to Earth from the SpaceX Dragon after completing the first all-private mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The spacecraft carrying the four crew members, which included Stibbe, mission commander, and Axiom Space Vice President Michael Lopez-Alegria, Ax-1 mission pilot Larry Connor, and Ax-1 mission specialist Mark Pathy, safely splashed down off the coast of Florida.

“On behalf of the entire SpaceX team, welcome back to Planet Earth. The Axiom-1 mission marks the beginning of a new paradigm for human space flight,” mission control told the crew.

The astronauts, who took off in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, were sent to spend 10 days in orbit, including eight days aboard the station. But inclement weather conditions in the area of the splashdown delayed the return by at least five days. The spacecraft had originally been set to come back on Wednesday of last week.

On Sunday, April 24 at 9:10 p.m. ET, Dragon and the Ax-1 astronauts undocked from the International Space Station to return to Earth. After performing a series of burns to move away from the station, Dragon conducted multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere on Monday, April 25.

During their stay on the space station, the group had a specific schedule, which included about 14 hours per day of activities, including scientific research. Stibbe also tested some 35 experiments for companies and research institutions on the privately funded Rakia Mission to the orbiting lab.

Stibbe is Israel’s second-ever astronaut in space. The first was Ilan Ramon, who was killed in 2003 when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry into the atmosphere, killing all seven crew members on board.