Staff Writer
The second private mission to the International Space Station has been completed after a SpaceX spacecraft carrying two Saudi astronauts splashed down off the coast of Florida.
After the hatch on their Crew Dragon was opened late Tuesday night, Rayyanah Barnawi, the first Saudi woman in space, fellow countryman Ali Al-Qarni, and Americans Peggy Whitson and John Shoffner waved joyfully to the cameras.
After spending eight days on the orbital outpost, they were then helped off of the spacecraft, as seen on a video stream supplied by Axiom Space, who chartered the trip with NASA.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson tweeted, “Welcome back to Earth!”
To gain a deeper understanding, the four-member crew participated in more than 20 study experiments, the effects of microgravity on the human body and to create technology that can help with upcoming human spaceflight, according to a statement from Axiom Space.
On May 21, the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) crew launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Each of the three paying crew members who participated in the company’s inaugural private voyage to the ISS in April of last year reportedly spent tens of millions of dollars for their tickets.
The cost incurred by the Saudi government in sending its two citizens on Ax-2 as well as the sum paid by businessman Shoffner have not been made public by the corporation. Former NASA astronaut Whitson is now employed by Axiom.
For Saudi Arabia, whose ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been anxious to project a gentler worldwide image since gaining power, the expedition has been somewhat of a publicity coup.
One of the firms developing a commercial space station to take the place of the ISS after it is decommissioned in 2030 is Axiom.
In order to free up its resources for missions further into space, including as the return of humans to the Moon and subsequent trips to Mars, NASA has made it a priority to promote the commercial economy in the region of space known as low Earth orbit.
