Sun Sep 15 14:04:23 UTC 2024: ## SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Mission Returns to Earth After Historic Spacewalk
**Key West, Florida –** SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission, which saw the world’s first commercial spacewalk and humans venturing further from Earth than any other private mission since the 1970s, concluded early Sunday with a successful splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Crew Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts, landed off the coast of Dry Tortugas, west of Key West, Florida, at 3:37 a.m. EDT after a five-day mission.
The mission, launched Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Center on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, saw the astronauts orbit at an altitude of 870 miles above Earth, surpassing the previous record held by NASA’s Gemini 11 mission in 1966.
“From here it looks like a perfect world,” mission commander Jared Isaacman, billionaire CEO of Shift4 Payments, said after the landing, gazing at Earth.
The mission’s most notable achievement was the first commercial spacewalk, undertaken by Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, who also became the first women to fly so far from Earth. The spacewalk was performed outside the Crew Dragon capsule, which lacks an airlock, with the astronauts wearing specially designed spacesuits.
The crew also included former US Air Force pilot Scott Kidd Poteet.
Upon re-entry, the Crew Dragon capsule faced temperatures reaching 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, successfully shielded by its heat shield. The capsule slowed down before deploying four parachutes to aid in its descent into the water.
Rescue crews quickly reached the capsule, bringing the astronauts aboard a specialized recovery vessel known as the “Dragon’s nest”.
The Polaris Dawn mission was a continuation of Isaacman’s commitment to space exploration. In November 2020, he funded a three-day orbital mission as part of a fundraiser for childhood cancer research.
First Piper 