The five-day space voyage known as Polaris Dawn ended safely Sunday as four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Dragon splashed down off the coast of Florida, wrapping up a groundbreaking commercial mission.
By Aaron Gregg
The flight was commissioned by Isaacman, who made a fortune as the founder of Shift4 Payments, and did not involve NASA. Isaacman has not said how much he paid SpaceX for the flight.
Several rounds of applause and cheers erupted in the background of a SpaceX live stream early Sunday as the crew rapidly approached Earth. In the mission’s final minutes, cameras showed crew members sitting still, their arms crossed over their chest, as the Dragon’s parachutes were deployed.
“Welcome back to planet Earth,” one of the hosts of the live broadcast said, marking their final return off the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico. Water scooters were quickly dispatched to approach the capsule.
Along with Isaacman and Gillis, the four-person crew included retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX mission director Anna Menon. They lifted off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Tuesday following delays. They flew higher than any other crewed mission since the Apollo moon missions in 1972, as the crew reached an altitude of more than 870 miles, or more than three times that of the International Space Station. They orbited Earth six times at that height before returning to a lower altitude for the spacewalk.
SpaceX said the spacewalk also represented the first time four astronauts were exposed to the vacuum of space at the same time. Because the spacecraft does not have an airlock, all four crew members donned spacesuits as the cabin was vented.
The four crew members completed science experiments designed to prepare astronauts for longer flights in the future. The experiments included tracking changes to eye sight and ocular health, studying how microgravity affects blood flow and monitoring the effects of medications in orbit.
Gillis also brought along a violin, which SpaceX called another first in an orbiting spacecraft, and played the theme music from a Star Wars movie, a moment depicted in a video SpaceX produced.
The mission’s main focus was testing SpaceX’s sleek new spacesuit, which is designed to protect astronauts from radiation and extreme temperatures while keeping them safe in the vacuum of space.
The splashdown caps a slew of recent wins for SpaceX, which has ferried NASA astronauts back and forth from the International Space Station since it first successfully completed a crewed test flight four years ago.
In a setback for Boeing, NASA has decided it will use SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft for the February return flight of astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who arrived at the International Space Station on Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft in June but were stuck there after thruster problems raised doubts about Starliner’s safety.
The Polaris Dawn mission was Isaacman’s second flight with SpaceX with two more flights planned. For the next flight, he has proposed flying to the Hubble Space Telescope and raising its orbit, which if successful could extend its life.
Kelly Kasulis Cho contributed to this report.
