"To all those who supported us around the world, you did an incredible job, it was an incredible mission," said American Larry Connor, one of the passengers, from the capsule, which was still bobbing in the sea.
The spacecraft was then lifted aboard a Space X ship. The four passengers exited one by one, unsteady in their steps because of the time needed to re-acclimatise to gravity.
The mission, named Ax-1, was the first fully private mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The US company Axiom Space bought the transport from SpaceX, and paid NASA for the use of its station.
"A lot of people were looking at this mission just to see if it was practical," Derek Hassmann, director of operations for Axiom Space, told a news conference. "Can you train them in a short time? Prepare them for a mission that has a minimal I think we've proven that it can be done."
The four men -- three clients who paid tens of millions of dollars each, and Spanish-American former astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria -- had blasted off on April 8 from Florida. They arrived in the ISS the next day, where they were initially scheduled to spend only eight days.
But their return had to be postponed several times due to bad weather conditions. They finally spent 15 days in the ISS and 17 in orbit. No additional costs were charged.
Larry Connor, head of a real estate company, Canadian Mark Pathy, head of an investment company, and former Israeli pilot Eytan Stibbe, co-founder of an investment fund, refuse to be considered as "space tourists".
They have in fact carried out a whole series of experiments on board the ISS, in partnership with research centres. This work has focused on ageing and heart health.
They will also spend the next few days in Orlando, where data on their health will be collected. The aim is to study the effect of space travel on the human body, comparing it with data collected before their trip.
- New missions to come -
Monday marked the fifth landing of a manned Dragon capsule. SpaceX now regularly ferries NASA astronauts to the ISS.
Seven people currently remain on board the station: three Americans and a German who came on a SpaceX spacecraft (a crew named Crew-3), and three Russians who travelled on a Soyuz rocket.
All of them are to be joined in the next few days by four other astronauts (three Americans and an Italian), Crew-4. Once the handover is complete, Crew-3 will return to Earth.
Elon Musk's company also conducted another fully private mission last year (Inspiration4), but this one did not go to the Space Station, as the four passengers simply stayed in the capsule for three days.
Novices have flown to the ISS before, notably in the 2000s. But they flew in Soyuzes, accompanied by practising cosmonauts. Last year, Russia resumed this type of trip, sending a film crew and then a Japanese billionaire.
NASA, for its part, is clearly encouraging this movement towards the privatisation of low Earth orbit. On the one hand, it wants to generate revenue from these private missions - a second one, Ax-2, has already been approved and should take place in about a year's time.
But above all, after the retirement of the ISS around 2030, NASA would like to avoid having to manage the operation of a space station itself and hand over to private companies. The US agency would then simply lease the services to send its astronauts there, allowing it to concentrate on distant exploration.
Axiom Space is one of the companies most advanced in positioning itself in this niche: it wants to launch the first module of its own station in 2024.
The structure will initially be attached to the ISS, before becoming autonomous and taking over.
The experience gained with Ax-1 was a crucial first step, according to Axiom Space's directors, to pave the way for the many missions to come.
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