The departure of the Axiom Space four-person private astronaut mission from the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed to no earlier than Feb. 6 due to unfavorable weather for splashdown off the Florida peninsula.
An initial delay to Feb. 5 was announced by NASA and Axiom on Feb. 3, fewer than 6 hr. prior to the previously planned undocking of the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom at 6:05 a.m. EST. The following day, NASA announced an additional delay to no earlier than Feb. 6.
The decision came as a low-pressure system was moving east across the Gulf of Mexico from the Texas/Louisiana region toward Florida, bringing heavy rain, wind gusts and periodic severe weather.
The third Axiom Space 3 (Ax-3) private astronaut mission launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 18 with an all-European crew headed by Michael Lopez-Alegria—Axiom’s chief astronaut, a former NASA astronaut and dual Spanish-America citizen. Also onboard are Italy’s Walter Villidei, the pilot; Sweden’s Marcus Wandt, a European Space Agency project astronaut; and Turkey’s Alper Gezeravci.
Their Crew Dragon capsule docked to the ISS’s Unity module early Jan. 20 to begin an aggressive and successively executed science and technology agenda for a 14-day stay.
The four astronauts are to be greeted by a SpaceX recovery vessel with support personnel from Axiom and SpaceX once they splash down in the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida.