Polaris Dawn commander Jared Isaacman steps out of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule during a spacewalk on September 12, 2024.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation
A SpaceX capsule with four citizens aboard touched down off the coast of Florida before dawn at 3:36 a.m. EST on Sunday, ending a historic mission that included the world’s first all-citizen spacewalk.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kid” Poteet, and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon return to Earth aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft ,exist Located off the coast of Florida’s Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico.
“Polaris Dawn, our mission is accomplished,” the operator announced over the radio as the rescue ship made its way to the capsule floating on the night sea.
this Five-Day Polaris Dawn Flights This is the fifth private mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule. It was also the company’s most ambitious expedition, and the crew and their spacecraft performed several dangerous maneuvers.
The most important of which is Thursday’s all-civilian spacewalk. Isaacman and Gillis exited the Crew Dragon capsule through a tether and spent about 10 minutes in the vacuum of space. The two wore newly designed spacesuits during a spacewalk to test their maneuverability.
The outing was a dangerous mission because the Dragon capsule did not have a pressurized airlock. This means that all four members of the Polaris Dawn mission wore spacesuits during the spacewalk and the entire capsule was depressurized to a vacuum.
The completion of the spacewalk is an important milestone in the history of human space. Previously, only astronauts from government space agencies conducted spacewalks to build or upgrade space stations, repair satellites and complete scientific experiments in orbit.
Early in the mission, Polaris Dawn astronauts flew to an orbital altitude of 870 miles above the Earth’s surface, the highest altitude reached by humans since the last Apollo moon mission in 1972.
At the time, the capsule was far enough away to pass through part of the Van Allen radiation belts, a region of high-energy radiation particles trapped in Earth’s magnetosphere. The journey will allow scientists to study the effects of space radiation on astronauts and their spacecraft. SpaceX said the findings could help in planning missions to the moon and eventually Mars, which would require astronauts to fly through the inner and outer Van Allen radiation belts.
Isaacman is the founder and CEO of payment processing company Shift4. He participated in the first civilian SpaceX mission to orbit in 2021 and provided funding for the Polaris Dawn mission, his second spaceflight, for an undisclosed amount.
The Polaris Dawn flight is designed to test new technologies and procedures for future long-duration missions. It is expected to be the first of three spaceflights under Isaacman’s Polaris program launched with SpaceX. He did not say how much the program would cost or when other missions would begin.
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