Watch live – Marcus Wandt returns to Earth

Marcus Wandt and the Ax-3 crew will wave goodbye on Wednesday 7 February to Crew 7 on the International Space Station, including ESA fellow astronaut and commander Andreas Mogensen.

The hatch of the SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will be closed at around 12:15 GMT/13:15 CET, with undocking taking place autonomously a couple of hours later, at around 14:05 GMT/15:05 CET.

The trip back to Earth will take the Ax-3 crew around nearly two days. Marcus will serve as a mission specialist during the journey, sharing the ride with Walter Villadei from Italy, Alper Gezeravcı from Türkiye and Michael López-Alegría, a dual US-Spanish citizen.

After a series of burns to lower its orbit, the spacecraft will enter Earth’s atmosphere and deploy its parachutes for a water-landing. Marcus and crew are expected to splash down off the coast of Florida, USA, on Friday 9 February 2024 at 13:30 GMT/14:30 CET. This will mark the end of Marcus’s mission, called Muninn.

Return home coverage

Muninn success

Marcus and his Ax-3 colleagues blasted into space towards the Space Station on 18 January at 21:49 GMT/22:49 CET (16:49 ET local time).

During his time on board, Marcus supported nearly 20 European experiments and spent more than 80 hours conducting science and technology demonstrations.

Find more about the Muninn science with a comprehensive media kit in English and Swedish, and check the Muninn website for regular updates, images and videos