SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission, marked by the first-ever private spacewalk conducted by non-government astronauts, successfully concluded on Sunday with a splashdown near Florida's coastline.
The Dragon spacecraft made a triumphant return to Earth at 07:37 GMT, as captured in a live webcast that showcased a recovery team swiftly mobilizing in the pre-dawn hours to retrieve both the capsule and its crew. Within thirty minutes, the capsule was secured aboard the recovery vessel.
The crew, consisting of SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, pilot Scott Poteet, and commander Jared Isaacman, underwent brief medical evaluations before exiting the capsule. Menon was the first to greet fans with smiles and waves, followed by Gillis, Poteet, and Isaacman. A helicopter was scheduled to transport them to land.
Expressing their elation, the Polaris Program announced on X, \"Happy, healthy, home. A new era of commercial spaceflight dawns, with much more to come.\"
Leading a four-member team, billionaire Isaacman launched from Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday, pushing the boundaries of human space exploration deeper into the cosmos than anyone in over fifty years by traversing the perilous Van Allen radiation belt. The mission reached a peak altitude of 1,400 kilometers, surpassing the International Space Station by more than threefold and marking the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth since the Apollo moon missions.
Post-spacewalk, the crew conducted approximately 40 scientific experiments, including innovative procedures like inserting endoscopic cameras through their noses to image their airways. These studies aim to enhance understanding of the long-term effects of space travel on human health.
Highlighting the synergy between technology and creativity, engineer Sarah Gillis showcased connectivity with SpaceX's Starlink satellite constellation by streaming a high-resolution video of her performing \"Rey's Theme\" from Star Wars, composed by John Williams, on the violin.
Polaris Dawn serves as the inaugural mission of a three-part Polaris program, a partnership between Isaacman and SpaceX. The program's final mission is set to achieve the maiden crewed flight of SpaceX's Starship, a cutting-edge rocket prototype central to CEO Elon Musk's vision of interplanetary exploration.
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
