Ax-3 Astronauts Enter Dragon for Departure Live on NASA TV

The four Axiom Mission 3 astronauts (front row) and the seven Expedition 70 crew members wave to the camera after greeting each other on Jan. 20, 2024. Credit: NASA TV
The four Axiom Mission 3 astronauts (front row) and the seven Expedition 70 crew members wave to the camera after greeting each other on Jan. 20, 2024. Credit: NASA TV

NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, and the agency’s website are providing live coverage from the International Space Station for the closure of the hatches between the station and the Dragon spacecraft to prepare for undocking and departure of the third private astronaut mission to the station, Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3).

Hatch closure is expected at about 7:15 a.m. EST. The four-member private astronaut crew is scheduled to undock at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7, to begin the journey home with splashdown off the coast of Florida on Friday, Feb. 9.

NASA coverage will break following hatch closure and resume at 9 a.m. in advance of the planned undocking and will continue until about 30 minutes after undocking when joint operations with the Axiom and SpaceX mission teams ends.

Ax-3 crew members Michael López-Alegría, Walter Villadei, Marcus Wandt, and Alper Gezeravci will complete 18 days aboard the orbiting laboratory at the conclusion of their mission. SpaceX Dragon will return to Earth with more than 550 pounds of cargo, including NASA hardware and data from over 30 different experiments.


Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog@space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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