The Polaris Dawn crew returned safely to Earth early Sunday morning, ending the historic, privately funded mission. The Dragon capsule carrying the mission’s four astronauts — Jared Isaacman, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico around 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
On Thursday, Isaacman and Gillis completed the first commercial spacewalk, each taking turns exiting the craft and performing a series of spacesuit mobility tests. And with this mission, Gillis and Menon have traveled farther from Earth than any women have before. Polaris reached a peak altitude of about 870 miles, which is also the farthest a human has ventured since the Apollo program.
The crew also performed a number of scientific experiments and was able to complete a 40-minute video call to Earth and send files in an important test of Starlink’s space communications capabilities. That included a video recorded during the mission of Gillis, an engineer and violinist, playing the violin in space. “A new era of commercial spaceflight is dawning, with much more to come,” x.com/PolarisProgram/status/1835252491480428851″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank” data-ylk=”slk:Polaris;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas” class=”link “>Pole Star Posted on Sunday morning x.
