The first human spaceflight of the year is headed back home as the four crew of the Axiom Space Ax-3 mission departed the International Space Station aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom on Wednesday making their way back for a Friday morning splashdown off the coast of Florida.

The quartet spent nearly 18 days docked to the ISS after launching from Kennedy Space Center back on Jan. 18 and arriving two days later. On board are Axiom chief astronaut and mission commander Michael López-Alegría along with Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, Alper Gezeravcı of Turkey and European Space Agency project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden.

They now have a nearly 48 hour ride home set to splash down in one of seven locations in either the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean that have yet to be announced.

“We hope you guys had a wonderful time on the station,” said SpaceX mission control on departure. “We’re looking forward to seeing your smiling faces in person.”

López-Alegría is a former NASA astronaut completing his sixth trip to space, and became the first person making a repeat ride on SpaceX’s Dragon having also commanded Axiom’s first private mission to the ISS in 2022.

Dragon separation confirmed! pic.twitter.com/g04pZ81RdS

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 7, 2024

“To our gracious, endearing hosts of Expedition 70 … Thank you for all you did for us. We couldn’t have done it without you,” he said, adding to NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, “There’s some peanut butter waiting for you in the airlock entrance on the forward side. Enjoy.”

The departure brings the ISS population down from 11 back to seven on board. Moghbeli is nearing a return home with her remaining SpaceX Crew-7 crew who arrived to the ISS last August. They will climb on board Crew Dragon after the arrival later this month of the Crew-8 replacement. O’Hara is set to leave back home on a Soyuz flight in March.

This marks the 12th human spaceflight of Crew Dragon for SpaceX among its fleet of four capsules bringing 45 different passengers to space — 46 if you include López-Alegría’s two flights. The newest of the spacecraft, Crew Dragon Freedom flew for the first time in 2022 on the Crew-4 flight as well as Axiom Space’s second trip to the ISS Ax-2 in 2023.

SpaceX has as many as four more flights planned in 2024 with Crew-8 set to launch next as early as Feb. 22 from KSC’s Launch Pad 39-A.

Axiom Space is the only private company that has been awarded the rights to visit the ISS and has its fourth mission set for as early as October. Each flight has featured a former NASA astronaut-turned Axiom employee commanding the mission along with three private customers. The first trip featured three men who paid Axiom Space $55 million each for the trip, but starting with Ax-3, the company steered toward its new baseline of carting up primarily astronauts for paying governments.

Ax-2 featured two astronauts from Saudi Arabia while this mission brought up astronauts for Italy, Turkey and Sweden. ESA astronaut Wandt marks the first time Axiom has flown a customer that already had access to the ISS as the ESA is one of the space station’s partners along with the U.S., Russia, Japan and Canada.

The quartet were supposed to depart the station and land on Saturday, but bad weather around Florida forced a series of delays so that the Ax-3 mission will be stretched an extra 5 1/2 days.

The quartet held a departing ceremony on Friday with the seven astronauts and cosmonauts of Expedition 70.

“Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end, and it’s time to bid farewell,” said Expedition 70 commander and ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen of Denmark. “”We want to congratulate them on a busy and successful mission. … You guys have been great crewmates.”