Ax-3 astronauts splash down in SpaceX Dragon capsule in ocean near Daytona Beach, Florida

Rick Neale, Florida Today
Updated ·3 min read
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The Ax-3 astronauts splashed down in their SpaceX Dragon Freedom capsule amid calm weather conditions Friday morning in the Atlantic Ocean offshore from Daytona Beach.

"Pretty exciting for the crew. I'm sure they're very excited to come home. They've been in space for about 21 days now," Jessie Anderson, a SpaceX production and engineering manager, said during the launch webcast.

The Axiom Space astronauts: commander López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut and dual American-Spanish citizen; mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey; mission specialist Marcus Wandt of Sweden, a European Space Agency astronaut; and pilot Walter Villadei, an Italian Air Force colonel.

At 7:37 a.m. EST, SpaceX reported that Dragon's trunk had been jettisoned. By 7:55 a.m., the deorbit burn was complete.

Then the capsule passed through its communications blackout period, and its parachutes began deploying at 8:26 a.m. Splashdown occurred about 8:30 a.m.

The Dragon capsule measures 16 feet tall and 13 feet in diameter. Peak re-entry temperatures were projected to reach about 3,500 degrees on the capsule's heat shield — with top speeds of 17,500 mph, Anderson said.

The Ax-3 astronauts launched Jan. 18 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center for a mission to the International Space Station.

They boarded their Dragon capsule and undocked from the ISS on Wednesday morning.

"Once it's time for our crew to splash down back on Earth, they'll be heading to one of seven targeted sites supported by SpaceX. All of these sites are located off the coast of Florida, either in the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic Ocean," Anderson said nearly an hour before Friday's splashdown.

"Spreading the supported sites across multiple locations helps to maximize the return opportunities for this mission in future crews, lowering the chance that we'll have to wave off due to bad weather," she said.

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"Since Dragon is capable of splashdown on either side of the Florida Panhandle, we have two identical and fully equipped recovery vessels ready to support," she said.

Coast Guard patrol boats were deployed to discourage boaters from entering the splashdown zones.

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Ax-3 astronauts splash down in Atlantic near Daytona Beach, Florida