The four astronauts on the first private mission to the International Space Station, led by the Hispanic-American commander Michael López-Alegría, have returned to Earth this Monday, after spending 17 days orbiting the planet at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers. Along with López-Alegría, who was born in Madrid 63 years ago and raised in the US, three wealthy businessmen traveled, each paying around €50 million for the trip: American Larry Connor, owner of a real estate investment empire; Canadian Mark Pathy, former CEO of the cargo shipping company Fednav; and Israeli Eytan Stibbe, a former fighter pilot and co-founder of LR Group, a company formerly linked to arms sales. according to the newspaper Haaretz.
