These space tourists are trapped on the ISS as delays continue

NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are now expecting to undock the Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1) crew from the International Space Station (ISS) on April 23rd.

The crew will undock at 8:35 p.m. EDT on April 23rd (00:35 UTC April 24th) and splash down around 1:46 p.m. Sunday, April 24th (17:46 UTC April 24th) off the coast of Florida. The crew originally left Earth bound for the ISS on April 8th, and were due to return on April 19th, but poor weather conditions on Earth have meant their return has been delayed.

The return was initially pushed back to April 20th, but with the latest update moving their return to the 24th, the crew will have spent another five days aboard the space station on top of their originally planned ten. NASA and Axiom prepared for the possibility that the private astronaut team would spend additional time on the ISS and ensured there were sufficient provisions for all crew members.

"Teams will continue to monitor weather at the splashdown sites prior to undocking to ensure conditions are acceptable for a safe recovery of the Ax-1 astronauts and Dragon spacecraft," NASA wrote in its latest update.

NASA will be providing live coverage of the Ax-1 crew's departure from the space station, beginning at 6:15 p.m. Saturday, April 23rd, with departure activities, with hatch closure being targeted for 6:30 p.m. and coverage resuming for the undocking at 8:15 p.m.

After SpaceX's Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft departs from the space station, the docking port will be clear for the Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft will be able to dock there, which will bring the Crew-4 astronauts to the space station.

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