Eeshna Dashottar, Pune
After the successful completion of the mission, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn returned to Earth with its four private citizens crew on September 15, 2024. The Crew Dragon capsule splashed into the ocean on the coast of Dry Tortugas in Florida, USA on Sunday at 3:37 AM ET. The four-member civilian crew on the spacecraft made history by successfully completing the first spacewalk by private civilians. This mission also marked the farthest human venture in space since the Apollo programme by NASA concluded in 1972.
The crew members included tech billionaire Jared Isaacman, SapceX engineer Sarah Gillis, United States Air Force commander Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX engineer and medical officer Anna Menon. They left Earth on September 10 from the Kennedy Space Center and embarked on a five-day mission to space. On Thursday, the civilians experienced outer space conditions for around one hour. Jared Isaacman was the first from the crew to take the experience. Isaacman and Gillis got to step outside the hatch and experienced outer space conditions while the others stayed inside the capsule.
Among several experiments conducted by the crew, an inter-satellite laser communication was tested by them between the capsule and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation. The crew sent a high-resolution video of Sarah Gillis playing Rey’s Theme from Star Wars by John Williams on violin.
As the capsule splashed into the coast of Florida on Sunday, the recovery mission was completed after the capsule was lifted from the water. The capsule was rescued by the rescue team using a special recovery vessel called ‘Dragon’s Nest’. The crew underwent brief medical checkups after they were recovered from the capsule. It has been reported that neither of the members faced any severe symptoms of space-traveling. Anna Menon was the first to exit post-check-up followed by Gillis, Poteet and Isaacman.
As the crew returned safely back to Earth, the Polaris Program expressed hope for the future through their post on X, calling the event the dawn of a new phase of commercial spaceflights. SpaceX founder Elon Musk also shared a picture of the crew’s ‘safe and sound’ return to home on X.