European astronaut Marcus Wandt returns to Earth at the end of the private Axiom Ax-3 mission

Splashdown of Dragon confirmed – welcome back to Earth, @CommanderMLA, @WalterVilladei, @TURKastroand @astro_marcus pic.twitter.com/9fF0hIT3gK

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 9, 2024

Several days late than initial forecasts due to unfavorable weather conditions, the Crew Dragon Freedom manned capsule has just landed in the Gulf of Mexico, ending the Axiom Ax-3 mission. It is the third private mission to the International Space Station (ISS). In total, thanks to the delay in their return, they have spent 18 days on the ISS.

On board they come Miguel López-Alegríawho was the commander, Walter Villadei as a pilot and Alper Gezeravcı and Marcus Wandt who took part in it as mission specialists. The four carried out research and outreach activities during their time aboard the Station.

Taking into account that López-Alegría has dual American and Spanish nationality, it can be considered that the Axiom Ax-3 mission is the first whose crew has been completely European, since Villadei is Italian, Gezeravci Turkish – he has been, by the way, the first person of Turkish nationality to go to space – and Swedish Wandt.

From left to right Wandt, Villadei, López-Alegría and Gezeravci – NASA

It so happens that although Wandt is a reserve astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA), curiously he has been the first of his class to go to space, ahead of those who are receiving formal training as astronauts from the agency.

The same thing will also happen with the Polish reserve astronaut Sławosz Uznański, who has been training for a few months and unless things go wrong, he will participate in the Axiom Ax-4 mission.

This is under an agreement signed at the end of April 2023 between Axiom Space and the European Space Agency (ESA) through which any member country of the agency can send an astronaut from its astronaut corps on an Axiom Space mission. prior authorization from ESA. And also running the expenses of the mission apart from the country’s contribution to the agency.

Wandt’s mission, named Muninn – one of Odin’s two messenger ravens; Huginn, the name of the other, was that of Andreas Mogensen’s mission – it focused on scientific activities to be carried out at ESA’s Columbus laboratory.

The places of Villadei, Gezeravci and Wandt have been contracted directly by their respective countries with Axiom. So calling it a private mission still allows for nuances. But since neither the Italian nor the Turkish are ESA personnel, they have not needed prior authorization from the agency.

Of course, Axiom missions, whoever is on board, have to be authorized by NASA. The company plans to launch at least two missions of this style per year until 2026.