Axiom-1 return: Dayton businessman, crew leave space station on trip back to Earth

Splashdown is scheduled to happen shortly after 1 p.m. Monday off the coast of Florida. The return flight takes about 16 hours.

Watch the undocking in this video feed:

Connor, a 72-year-old local businessman and philanthropist, is the pilot of a four-person Axiom crew.

He has been working on science experiments on board the space station, he said in a virtual interview at the Boonshoft Museum of Natural History’s planetarium last Tuesday.

Connor partnered with Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic and brought along heart cells to study. Experiments focus on heart function and aging disorders. Connor said the crew has been working 14-hour days.

Axiom-1 left Earth on April 8 from the Kennedy Space Center, and the crew spent 16 days at the International Space Station. That stay has been extended due to multiple weather delays.

“The crew is well prepared and ready for their journey home after spending a few extra days aboard the ISS,” an update from NASA’s blog post read.

Connor has spoken several times about the mission and stressed it is not “space tourism.” At the Boonshoft, his wife, Christine Connor, told a Dayton Daily News reporter that her husband underwent several tough training days to be ready for this mission, including one time when he was thrown into the ocean, tossed a rope and a helicopter pulled him out.

Connor previously said he underwent more than 1,022 hours of training. He said a space tourist typically does less training before heading up.

“A lot of people don’t realize we are designated by NASA as private astronauts,” Connor told a reporter. “And that is a huge difference as compared to a space tourist.

“A space tourist might do 10-15 hours of training and we’ve all done well over 1,000 hours. Plus, we’ve had to pass a lot of rigorous tests – both physical tests and also extensive tests of knowledge – to meet all the professional astronaut standards.”