Astronaut Stibbe set for splashdown

Eytan Stibbe, Israel’s second astronaut, bade farewell to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday as his brief stay in space came to a close.

Stibbe and his fellow astronauts aboard Axiom’s Ax-1 mission were scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday but weather conditions appear to have forced a delay.

The 64-year-old astronaut was launched with three colleagues to the ISS last week . As part of Israel’s Rakia mission, Stibbe conduct 35 Israeli experiments covering various fields, including testing or demonstrating the viability of certain technologies, observing scientific phenomena, studying mechanisms of theorized concepts and groundbreaking tests on food and agriculture.

In a farewell ceremony on Tuesday afternoon, Stibbe talked about his time in space and said he was pleased with the “impressive and unique” international collaboration onboard the ISS.

“We learned a lot,” Stibbe said. “I feel like I’m just getting started, and I’m ready to stay here for another month or so.” He wished those watching the ceremony from home a happy Passover.

Ax-1, led by Houston-based start-up Axiom Space in partnership with SpaceX and NASA, is a historic moment for science and space travel. While other private space ventures such as Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic focus heavily on space tourism, Ax-1 has been entirely science-focused, and is the first to send an all-civilian crew to the ISS to make use of its designed purpose: an orbital laboratory.

Indeed, it is being seen by many – especially the three companies involved in Ax-1 – as a major step in expanding commercial activity in space.

Stibbe was originally set to depart earlier on Tuesday before poor weather conditions delayed the undocking.