Billionaire Jared Isaacman and the Polaris Dawn crew made a triumphant return to Earth on Sunday, marking the end of a historic mission. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida, at 3:36 a.m. EDT, successfully concluding an ambitious journey that included the world’s first commercial spacewalk.
SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, celebrated the safe ocean recovery, which was the result of a precise re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere. The capsule decelerated dramatically before deploying four large parachutes that gently guided it into the ocean. SpaceX shared the successful splashdown on X (formerly Twitter), emphasizing the significance of this recovery phase.
The mission’s most groundbreaking achievement came Thursday morning when Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis stepped outside their Crew Dragon spacecraft, making space history. Donning SpaceX’s newly designed spacesuits, they ventured into the vacuum of space, testing the suits’ mobility in a 15-20 minute excursion outside the capsule. This marked the first commercial spacewalk, a crucial step for future manned space missions.
Once the recovery team secured the spacecraft, it was carefully lifted onto the recovery vessel Shannon. A SpaceX jetski was first to approach the capsul to provide a quick safety check, then a RIB approached with gas and safety testing equipment. Finally a RIB attached a lifting harness to the capsul so it could be pulled aboard the Shannon.
The Polaris Dawn crew—Mission Commander Jared Isaacman, Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, and Medical Officer Anna Menon—disembarked from the capsule Resilience. After a brief post-flight check aobard the Shannon, the crew was swiftly airlifted to shore by helicopter, concluding their historic mission.
Earlier in the mission, the Polaris Dawn team reached a record-setting altitude of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) above Earth on Tuesday. This extraordinary feat pushed the crew farther into space than any humans have ventured since the Apollo moon landings. Notably, Menon and Gillis now share the record as the women who have traveled the farthest from Earth.
Also Read: All-Female SpaceX Crew Makes Space Recovery History
The successful ocean recovery of the Crew Dragon capsule marks not only a significant milestone for SpaceX and commercial space exploration but also sets a new benchmark for future missions aimed at pushing human boundaries beyond Earth’s atmosphere. As the Polaris Dawn crew is safely returned to Earth, the mission stands as a testament to what’s possible when private enterprise and bold visionaries like Isaacman take humanity to the edge of space—and back.
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