SpaceX announced overnight that the expected return of the Axiom-3 astronauts aboard a Crew Dragon has been delayed.

SpaceX, Axiom Space, and NASA are targeting no earlier than Tuesday,

Dragon and the Ax-3 crew are now targeting no earlier than Tuesday, February 6 at 9:05 a.m. ET to undock from the [International Space Station.] Teams continue to keep an eye on recovery weather conditions

SpaceX, February 4, 2024

The company also added more information on their website:

February 6 at 9:05 a.m. ET for Dragon and the Ax-3 astronauts to depart from the International Space Station. After performing a series of burns to move away from the space station, Dragon will conduct multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison its trunk, and re-enter Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately nine hours later the same day.

SpaceX, Ax-3 Mission, Retrieved February 4, 2024

The Axiom-3 mission is coming to a conclusion and Space Coast resident might get to see a relatively rare event in the skies: a Crew Dragon capsule re-entering the atmosphere headed for a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Canaveral. Before the delay, that’s what had been planned, but that may be changed as a result of the extra two days Axiom 3 will spend at Station.

NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX will provide updates, then live coverage of re-entry and splashdown as they occur.

The current plan is for Axiom-3 to splash down off of the Florida coast on the Atlantic side but that may change due to the shift in dates.

Several factors will come in to play: first, spacecraft and crew readiness for re-entry, and second, the local weather at the planned splashdown points. According to SpaceX, some pre-reentry activities include “conduct[ing] multiple orbit-lowering maneuvers, jettison[ing] the trunk, and re-enter[ing] Earth’s atmosphere for splashdown off the coast of Florida approximately 13 hours later the same day.

Tonight (Saturday) and tomorrow, deteriorating conditions are expected off of the west coast of the state, and becoming unsettling to the east off of the Atlantic. Given that the Gulf of Mexico is also a landing spot, in this case probably a backup, and that the Atlantic will start having unsettled seas in front of the approaching storm front, the decision is completely prudent.

Stay tuned for more information, Talk of Titusville will share it as it happens.