After being stuck in space for six extra days due to stormy weather near Florida, the first all-European private astronaut mission finally returned home to Earth early Friday morning. The crew left the International Space Station on Wednesday morning and landed off the Florida coast around 8:30 a.m. EST. SpaceX decided to postpone the original return date of the crew to ensure their safety in the stormy recovery zone. The Crew Dragon spacecraft and its crew had several potential landing sites off both Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic coasts, but poor weather conditions in the recovery area prolonged their stay in space. The crew was finally able to leave the space station as the storm system causing the delays moved away from the recovery zone. After spending 20 days in space, the Dragon spacecraft departed from the station and splashed down off the coast of Daytona Beach, Florida about 47.5 hours later, following a successful re-entry and parachute-assisted landing. The crew, comprising members from Italy, Turkey and Sweden, conducted over 30 experiments in microgravity during their time in orbit, focusing on biomedical research, sleep, bone health, space weather and even cooking pasta in space. This mission represented the first all-European human spaceflight to the ISS and marked the second Axiom Space mission for the crew’s chief astronaut, who is also a former NASA astronaut.
