Your vacation in space has been involuntarily extended: On Monday evening (CET), four space tourists returned to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).
The landing was one of the highlights of their journey into space – BILD explains the return trip.
Just after 7 p.m., Space X’s Dragon space capsule landed on four large private parachutes in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida. According to the first reports, the four astronauts were in good shape.
Landing is the most difficult stage because the spacecraft is heated up by friction in the Earth’s atmosphere. The team was launched on April 8 and was only supposed to stay in space for a week. But bad weather conditions for landing in the Gulf of Mexico repeatedly caused new delays.
This video, captured with an infrared camera, shows a rescue team approaching a space capsule that has landed at seaPhoto: AP
The four tourists are astronaut Michael Lopez Allegria, American businessman Larry Connor, Israeli businessman Eitan Stipe and Canadian investor Mark Bathy. They also met German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer on the International Space Station.
The private Dragon space capsule of billionaire Elon Musk had previously separated from the space station.
Unlike the Russian Soyuz capsules, which land in the Kazakh desert, the Dragon capsules fall off and are then picked up by a special ship. The amazing waterfall was recorded by cameras.
The flight was a small space show: for the first time, a purely private mission was flown to the ISS.
A one-week and full-board private trip costs the equivalent of around €50 million – per person!
The flight was organized by the American company Axiom, which even plans to build a space hotel in space.
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