SpaceX Polaris Dawn The crew returned to Earth after five days in orbit, following a historic mission that was the world’s first commercial spacewalk.
The Dragon spacecraft touched down on the Florida coast shortly after 03:37 local time (07:37 GMT), in an event live-streamed by SpaceX.
“Confirmed Dragon landing successfully! Welcome back to Earth,” SpaceX said on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The US space agency NASA said the mission represents a “major leap forward” for the commercial space industry.
Upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the spacecraft reaches temperatures of nearly 1,900 degrees Celsius (3,500 degrees Fahrenheit), due to the intense pressure and friction of pushing through the air at speeds of about 7,000 mph (27,000 km/h).
The four-member team of astronauts, funded and led by billionaire Jared Isaacman, has traveled further into space than any human has in more than fifty years.
Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force pilot, and SpaceX employees Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon are also on the crew.
Mr. Isaacman and Ms. Gillis were the first non-professional crew to perform a spacewalk, a risky activity that involves depressurizing the crew compartment and exiting the spacecraft.
Only astronauts from government-funded space agencies had been able to accomplish this feat before this flight.
Live footage showed the two crew members stepping out of the white Dragon capsule and drifting 435 miles (700km) above the blue Earth below.
“Back home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here — it looks like a perfect world,” Isaacman said during the spacewalk at mission control in Hawthorne, California.
Because Dragon has no air chamber, the crew was exposed to the vacuum of space during spacewalks.
This spacewalk, higher than any before, was made possible by an improved spacesuit equipped with new technology.
Over five days, the crew conducted more than 40 experiments, including investigations into the impact of space missions on human health and testing inter-satellite laser communications between the Dragon spacecraft and SpaceX’s Starlink satellites.
Gillis, a classically trained violinist, brought his instrument and performed “Rey’s Theme” from the movie “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” accompanied by orchestras on Earth.
Her translation was sent back to Earth using SpaceX’s Starlink to test the satellite network’s potential to provide connectivity in space.
This video was made in partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where the Polaris Program raised funds during the mission.
The crew spent a total of five days in orbit inside the Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, which launched early Tuesday morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The mission made history by reaching a maximum altitude of 1,400km (870 miles), higher than any human flight since the last Apollo mission in 1972.
Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned Polaris missions, a collaboration between Isaacman and SpaceX.
This includes the first manned flight of the new aircraft. SpaceX Starship rocket, still in development.
