The Polaris Dawn crew returned to Earth aboard SpaceX‘s Dragon spacecraft on Sunday, marking the end of a 5-day mission where they completed the first commercial spacewalk.
What Happened: The spacecraft splashed down near Dry Tortugas in Florida at 3:36 a.m. ET on Sunday.
“Welcome back to Earth!,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on social media platform X.
“It is with great relief that I welcome you home! This mission was even more extraordinary than I anticipated,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said.
Polaris Dawn was the first of up to three human spaceflight missions planned under the Polaris program founded by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the mission to space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at around 5:23 a.m. ET on Tuesday. SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft and the all-civilian Polaris Crew composed of four including its mission commander Isaacman, Kidd Poteet, Sarah Gillis, and Anna Menon spent nearly five days in orbit before returning to Earth.
Landmark Achievements On Mission: On day two of the mission, the mission touched its maximum target altitude of over 870 miles, marking the farthest humans have ventured from Earth in over 50 years since the end of the Apollo program.
During a spacewalk on Thursday, crew members Isaacman and Gillis separately exited SpaceX‘s Dragon spacecraft into the vacuum of space at an altitude of about 738 km.
Isaacman exited the spacecraft first after the Dragon’s cabin was depressurized and the hatch opened, followed by Gillis. Gillis’ return to the capsule and subsequent closing of the hatch marked the end of the spacewalk.
Both Isaacman and Gillis spent about 12 minutes each outside of the spacecraft, testing the SpaceX-designed EVA spacesuits.
While space agency NASA routinely conducts extravehicular activities with government astronauts, no commercial player or astronauts have attempted it before, making this a landmark achievement for SpaceX and commercial spaceflight companies.
Gillis also played the theme music from a Star Wars movie on a violin while in space.
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Photo courtesy: Polaris Dawn
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