The Axiom-3 mission has ended safely off the Florida coast near Daytona Beach. Michael López-Alegría, Commander of the the AX3 mission, reported a few minutes after the splashdown “flying SpaceX was our pleasure” and that “all four crew members are feeling well.”

SpaceX ground controllers were also pleased by the safe landing, telling the crew, “Thank you for flying SpaceX!”

Several Space Coast area residents reported that while the reentry was largely obscured by clouds overhead, they could definitely hear a sonic boom that heralded the return of Crew Dragon.

Historian and host of the podcast “Space And Things” Emily Carney told Talk of Titusville that she heard the sonic boom on the other side of Florida, “I could hear the sonic booms all the way in Saint Petersburg – they woke me up, they were quite impressive. I checked my newsfeed to verify Ax-3 was returning and that was the culprit!”

Winds Delayed Landing

Originally slated to land last weekend, the Axiom-3 return to Earth had been delayed several days due to inclement weather off both sides of the Florida peninsula. High winds also affected the timing of the liftoff of NASA’s PACE mission this week. The winds finally relented and allowed both the launch and the splashdown on Thursday and today, respectively, and both missions were completed successfully: PACE is on orbit and Axiom-3’s astronauts are back on the Earth.

Next Steps

Crew Dragon Freedom will then return to Port Canaveral in Florida and astronauts will undergo post-flight health checks and debriefing. The capsule will return to Space X’s facilities at Kennedy Space Center for analysis, checkouts and hopefully refurbishment for the next mission.

Experiments performed by the crew aboard ISS will also be analyzed, a process that could extend for several months.

We reached out to Axiom Space to ascertain when a potential Axiom-4 mission could take place, and they told us, “NASA and Axiom Space have signed a mission order for the fourth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, targeted to launch no earlier than October 2024 from the agency’s NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.” On today’s SpaceX livestream, commentators mentioned that they were looking forward to working with the Axiom for that mission.