Aayush Pathak
In a triumphant conclusion to a groundbreaking mission, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule carrying the Polaris Dawn team splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico near Tortugas, Florida, at 3:37 a.m. Eastern on Sunday. The four-member crew, led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, made history during their five-day journey by conducting the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
The mission, which launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, took the crew deeper into space than any humans have traveled in the past half-century. The Dragon spacecraft reached a peak altitude of 1,400 kilometers, more than three times higher than the International Space Station and surpassing the furthest distance reached since the Apollo missions to the Moon.
The Historic Spacewalk
With their orbit lowered to 698.6 kilometers, Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis made their way out of the Dragon spacecraft on Thursday, gripping a structure called “Skywalker” as they took in the breathtaking view of Earth. “SpaceX, back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman told mission control in Hawthorne, California, as the teams erupted in applause.
Since the Dragon capsule lacks an airlock, the entire crew donned spacesuits and the cabin was depressurized, exposing them to the vacuum of space. Mission pilot Scott Poteet and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon remained strapped in throughout, monitoring vital support systems.
NASA chief Bill Nelson hailed the spacewalk as a “giant leap forward” for the commercial space industry, while also praising it as another triumphant achievement for SpaceX. The company, founded in 2002, has rapidly outpaced its competitors thanks in large part to the vision of founder Elon Musk.
Scientific Experiments and Starlink Demonstration
During their time in orbit, the Polaris Dawn crew carried out nearly 40 science experiments, including inserting endoscopic cameras through their noses and into their throats to better understand the impact of long-duration space missions on human health.
They also demonstrated the capabilities of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellite constellation by sending high-resolution video of Gillis playing “Rey’s Theme” by “Star Wars” composer John Williams on the violin back to ground control.
Polaris Dawn marks the first of three missions under the Polaris program, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX. The successful completion of this groundbreaking mission paves the way for even more ambitious goals in the future of commercial spaceflight.
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