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The crew of SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico, ending a five-day journey into orbit that included the world’s first commercial space mission.
The Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts touched down on Florida’s Dry Tortugas beach at 3:37 a.m. Sunday.
The Polaris Dawn mission made history by reaching the highest altitude ever traveled by man in five decades. A spaceflight conducted early Thursday marked the first such attempt by a privately funded and operated mission.
But returning to Earth is one of the most dangerous stretches of space travel.
To get home safely, the Crew Dragon capsule underwent a so-called “de-orbit burn,” orienting itself as it prepared to cut through the thickest part of Earth’s atmosphere.
The spacecraft then reached extremely hot temperatures — up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit (1,900 degrees Celsius) — due to the pressure and friction of hitting the air while traveling at 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kilometers per hour). However, the crew must remain at a comfortable temperature, protected by the Crew Dragon’s heat shield, which is located at the bottom of the 13-foot-wide (4-meter-wide) capsule.
Drag against the wind began to decelerate the vehicle before the Crew Dragon parachutes were deployed.
After hitting the sea, the spaceship would hang around in the water for a while while a rescue team waiting nearby prepared to pull it out of the sea and put it on a special boat called the “Dragon’s Nest”. There, final safety checks will take place before the crew disembarks from the capsule and begins its journey back to dry land.
The Polaris Dawn team includes mission commander Jared Isaacman, billionaire CEO of financial firm Shift4 Payments; his close friend and former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kid” Poteet; and SpaceX operations engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.
The quartet began the mission by breaking the altitude record, achieving an orbit around Earth that extended to 870 miles (1,400 kilometers). It is the highest human orbiter ever, surpassing the record set by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966. 853 miles (1,373 kilometers).
The crew’s apogee — or farthest point from Earth — made Gillis and Menon the first women to ever fly from our planet.
The apogee also marks the furthest point no human has traveled since the end of NASA’s Apollo program in 1972.
The Crew Dragon capsule lowered its altitude to perform the spacewalk.
In a high-risk event, also known as an extravehicular activity or EVA, the Crew Dragon capsule fully depressurized before Isaacman opened the hatch, exposing the crew to the vacuum of space.
Isaacman and Gillis each left the vehicle for 10 minutes before the crew retreated into the Dragon spacecraft, conducting a series of tests to understand the operation of the EVA suits.
The spacewalk went without any major problems. After taking his first look outside the spacecraft, Isaacman said, “We all have a lot of work to do at home, but from here – it looks like a perfect world.”
The rest of the crew’s time in orbit was spent conducting nearly 40 scientific experiments and research, some of which sought to better understand space adaptation syndrome — a type of microgravity-specific motion sickness.
Gillis, a trained violinist, brought her instrument to work and performed “Rey’s Theme” from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Gillis’ music was sent to Earth using SpaceX’s Starling, testing the satellite network’s ability to provide space connectivity.
Menon took time out to read her co-authored book “Kisses from Space” to her family and a group of patients from St. Jude Children’s Hospital as part of the fundraiser.
Sunday’s expected return marks the end of the third mission into space for the particular Crew Dragon capsule operating the Polaris Dawn mission.
In November 2020, the first mission to space, known as Crew-1, was flown by NASA astronauts named “Resilience” – the 2021 Inspiration 4 mission. The trip, funded by Isaacman, saw him and three crew members orbit the Earth for three days as part of a fundraiser for childhood cancer research.
