LOS ANGELES, April 25 (Xinhua) -- The first U.S. private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) returned to Earth on Monday.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida, at 1:06 p.m. Eastern Time Monday, SpaceX confirmed.
The crew undocked from the ISS at 9:10 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, completing the first all-private astronaut mission to the orbiting laboratory.
The four-person multinational crew is composed of Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Pilot Larry Connor of the United States, Mission Specialist Eytan Stibbe of Israel, and Mission Specialist Mark Pathy of Canada.
The mission, codenamed Ax-1, was launched on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 8. ■
