UPDATE - SpaceX's Dragon capsule, carrying Axiom-3 Mission, returns to Earth

UPDATES WITH NEW DETAILS OF RETURN TO EARTH; COMMENTS BY TURKISH PRESIDENT ERDOGAN

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - SpaceX's Dragon Capsule, carrying Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish space travelers, splashed down successfully off Florida at 8.30 a.m. Eastern Time (1330GMT).

After initial safety checks by SpaceX staff, the capsule was lifted onto a recovery vessel and its crew disembarked from the spacecraft.

On the ship, crew members took their first steps after roughly three weeks in non-gravity conditions.

In around 5-6 hours after landing the crew will have reached their destination of Houston, Texas.

They will remain under observation for a week to complete the adaptation process.

The capsule undocked from the International Space Station on Wednesday and began its return to Earth.

On Friday, the capsule jettisoned its trunk at 7.37 a.m. and deorbited soon after at 7.41 a.m. before deploying its parachutes just ahead of reaching the surface.

The return process took around 47 hours.

The Axiom-3 space mission had been launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 19 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Its crew docked at the International Space Station the next day on Jan. 20.

During their over-two-week stay on the station, Turkish Air Force pilot Col. Alper Gezeravci and his three crewmates from Spain, Italy, and Sweden carried out over 30 scientific experiments, about half of them by Gezeravci himself.

The crew's scheduled return had been postponed several times due to bad weather.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after the crew landed that Türkiye will send many more people to space.

Tuva Cihangir Atasever, a candidate Turkish space traveler, is expected to make the journey with space firm Virgin Galactic.