Türkiye's first astronaut Alper Gezeravcı, who's spent two productive weeks performing experiments at the International Space Station as part of the Axiom-3 mission, headed back to Earth on Wednesday.
The hatch of the Earth-bound space capsule is carrying Gezeravcı, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish space travelers.
After the hatch closed at 7.25 a.m. Eastern Time (1225GMT), the SpaceX Dragon capsule - carrying the four-person Axiom-3 Mission crew, who have spent over two weeks in Earth orbit - is expected to undock at 9.20 a.m. ET (1420GMT).
After the undocking phase, the capsule will leave orbit and re-enter the atmosphere.
As it approaches the Earth’s watery surface, the capsule will deploy its parachutes before splashdown.
The return process is expected to conclude in around 47 hours, or on Friday morning, Eastern Time in the U.S.
The mission was launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 19 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The Ax-3 space mission crew docked at the International Space Station the next day, Jan. 20.
During their over two-week stay at the station, Turkish Air Force pilot Col. Gezeravcı and his three crewmates from Spain, Italy, and Sweden were responsible for carrying out over 30 scientific experiments, about half of them by Gezeravcı himself.
The crew’s scheduled return has been postponed several times due to bad weather.
