The first-in-Sin-stroke Polaris Dawn Space Mission ended on Sunday with return to Earth in four private sector astronauts in a Crew Dragon Capsule that had lifted five days earlier on top of a Spacex Falcon 9 rocket.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk noted the end of the mission with a post on X Social Network (formerly Twitter): “Polaris Crew is Home Safe & Sound!”
The signature’s implementation of Polaris Dawn’s time on orbit was a spacecraft of two members of the crew on Thursday, the first such extrave hicular activity performed by astronauts in a commercial initiative rather than as a commitment from a government -backed agency as NASA or its colleagues in Russia and China.
“It is critical for the commercial industry to have tools and experience for space hiking, and the suit we tested is just the first step in this journey,” said mission commander Jared Isaacman on X in a Sunday after regaining the mission. “Along the way, we have learned a lot about the technical disciplines related to EVA operations.”
The mission was a follow -up of kinds for a private mission from 2021 called Inspiration4. Both were supported by Isaacman, Billionaire’s founder and CEO of the Data Company Shift4. Polaris Dawn has been in the works for several years; At one point, it was about sending a crew to increase life in the Hubble room telescope.
This new mission wasn’t. Instead, the herd used space suit technology developed by SpaceX for its space hiking activities. They also tested laser -based communication with satellite broadband provider Starlink as part of an effort to pave the way for travel to places including Mars. Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The risk was not insignificant: The herd also achieved the highest trajectory of the soil ever recorded and carried through heavy radiation and areas with higher risk of damage from small spacecraft species and dirt.
“It’s not easy to travel so far into space,” Isaacman said in his Sunday X -Post. “The environment is hard with increased radiation, more micrometeoroid waste and no nearby safe ports in case of problems. We went there to study the radiation environment, gather data on its influence on systems and human health and to explore areas we know less about, Where we can learn new problem -solving methods that will help in future missions.
Who flew on the mission?
The crew included four members. They are:
Jared IsaacmanShift4 CEO, said to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the mission, in addition to serving as a mission commander. Isaacman was also on the inspiration4 mission in 2021.
Sarah GillisSpaceX’s senior operation engineer, who has trained NASA astronauts and served as a mission specialist for Polaris Dawn. Together with Isaacman, she was one of the two crew members who performed Spacewalk.
Scott pawwho served as a Mission Director of Inspiration4, is a former fighter jet pilot for the US Air Force. He performed communication and space hiking aid on the mission.
Anna Menon, A leading operating engineer at SpaceX was responsible for the herd’s health during Polaris Dawn.
What did they do on this mission?
On Thursday, two crew members left the spacecraft to complete the first space hiking of members of a commercial venture.
“Spacex, at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here the earth certainly looks like a perfect world,” said Isaacman of an open hatch. The mission team shared the moment in a video that was broadcast to social media on Thursday when SpaceX marked the completion of this excursion.
In addition to Spacewalk, which Isaacman and Gillis were the first private astronauts to perform, the mission laser communication with Starlink and performed a number of biology and human endurance tests, according to the Polaris Dawn site.
The spacecraft traveled to a lane of approx. 870 miles above the ground, just past the height of 853 miles set by the Gemini XI mission in 1966, according to the New York Times. In comparison, the International Space Station orbits approx. 250 miles.
Polaris Dawn is expected to be the first of three missions, the next two of which will use SpaceX’s new Starship Rocket.
SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 -rocket on Launchpad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
What took so long with the Polaris Dawn launch?
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted from NASAS Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at. 05:23 A Tuesday, September 10 after two weeks of postponements. SpaceX marked the apartment with a short, to-point message of X: “Lifting Polaris Dawn!” Shortly afterwards, the first phase booster returned and landed on his target dip as the spacecraft continued its ascent. Within 15 minutes, the crew was in orbit.
Tuesday’s launch window was the latest in a number of options that had come and gone since the end of August. “Targeting not earlier than Tuesday, September 10 for Falcon 9’s launch of the Polaris Dawn mission,” Spacex said in a post of x late Monday, September 9th. “The weather is currently 40% favorable for the liftoff and conditions on possible splashdown places for Dragon’s return to the ground remains an ancient article.”
The original launch date in the last week of August was scrubbed to allow for “a closer look at a helium leak on the ground on the fast disconnection,” Spacex, said at that time in an X post. One day later, the Polaris Dawn team stood down again “due to unfavorable weather in the Dragon’s Splashdown area off the coast of Florida,” the company said. Isaacman had previously published on X that the launch team would assess the conditions day by day.
“Crew security is definitely most important, and this mission carries more risk than usual, as it will be the longest people have traveled from Earth since Apollo and the first commercial space walk!” Musk posted at the end of August at X, which he owns. “If any concerns arise, the launch is postponed until these concerns are treated.”
Correction, August 28: An earlier version of this article said the wrong name of Jared Isaacman’s company. He is CEO of Shift4.