SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew returned to Earth after five days in orbit, completing a privately financed mission that included the first commercial spacewalk. The Dragon capsule Resilience splashed down off Florida shortly after 03:37 local time, or 07:37 GMT.
The four-person civilian crew consisted of mission leader and funder Jared Isaacman, retired US Air Force pilot Scott Poteet, and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon. Isaacman and Gillis became the first people outside professional government astronaut corps to conduct a spacewalk.
Because Dragon has no airlock, the entire cabin had to be depressurised and all four crew members were exposed to vacuum while Isaacman and Gillis exited. Live pictures showed them emerging from the capsule about 435 miles, or 700 kilometres, above Earth. Newly developed suits enabled the manoeuvre, which was higher than any previous spacewalk.
The mission also reached a maximum altitude of 1,400 kilometres, or 870 miles. That took the crew farther from Earth than any people had travelled since the final Apollo mission in 1972. Re-entry brought a different extreme: the capsule encountered temperatures close to 1,900C, or 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, while moving through the atmosphere at about 7,000mph, equivalent to 11,265kph.
During the five-day flight, the crew performed more than 40 experiments. These included research on how spaceflight affects human health and a trial of laser communication between Dragon and SpaceX's Starlink satellites.
Gillis, a trained violinist, used that connection in a musical demonstration. Her selection was Rey’s Theme from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, accompanied by Earth-based orchestras, and the recording was transmitted through Starlink to test in-space connectivity. The project was produced with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, for which the Polaris Program was raising funds.
Resilience had launched early Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After splashdown, NASA described the mission as a significant advance for commercial spaceflight. The flight extended private human missions beyond transport to orbit by testing spacesuits, cabin depressurisation, health research and communications under conditions previously handled only through government programmes.
Polaris Dawn was planned as the first of three missions developed jointly by Isaacman and SpaceX. The programme was expected eventually to include the first crewed flight of Starship, which remained under development. Sunday's recovery completed the initial mission without ending the wider programme. Its principal milestones were the high-altitude orbit, the commercial spacewalk and the safe return of all four crew members after five days. The laser link, spacesuits and re-entry also tested systems intended for later private missions. All four returned safely aboard Resilience.
