Welcome Back To Planet Earth: SpaceX Polaris Dawn Crew Returns After Historic Spacewalk Mission 

The five-day Polaris Dawn mission, operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ended early Sunday as the Crew Dragon capsule safely splashed down off the coast of Florida. The mission, hailed as a massive success, featured the world’s first commercial spacewalk with astronauts traveling further into space than any humans for more than half a century and marked a breakthrough in testing inter-satellite laser communication through SpaceX’s Starlink network. 

The Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts, including billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis, and two others, splashed down off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida, around 0337 ET. 

Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew returning to Earth pic.twitter.com/p8hpwuT7lP

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024

Dragon’s four main parachutes have deployed pic.twitter.com/qegPjNW5iT

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024

Welcome back to planet Earth.

Splashdown of Dragon confirmed! Welcome back to Earth, @rookisaacman, @kiddpoteet, @Gillis_SarahE, @annawmenon pic.twitter.com/nILpMQh2sR

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024

Dragon’s hatch is open and the Polaris Dawn crew is getting ready to exit the spacecraft pic.twitter.com/KItVBSwJff

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024

By 0600 ET, the crew exited the Crew Dragon capsule. 

pic.twitter.com/efEp2efpEN

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024

Dragon and the Polaris Dawn crew splash down off the coast of Florida, completing the @PolarisProgram‘s first human spaceflight mission pic.twitter.com/Sobt66zxnL

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 15, 2024

The mission’s top focus was testing SpaceX’s most advanced spacesuits at an apogee – or farthest point from Earth – than any human has traveled since NASA’s Apollo Program ended in 1972. Astronauts Isaacman and Gillis exited the spacecraft for ten minutes each to test the new suits.

The inter-satellite laser communication between the Dragon Spacecraft and SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation was also successfully tested during the mission. 

Looking ahead, Musk revealed one week ago that the Starship mega rocket will begin flying Mars missions in two years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens. The mission will be uncrewed to test the rocket’s ability to land intact on the Red Planet. 

Democrats are fuming over SpaceX’s space successes, while Boeing’s Starship and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are light-years behind Musk.  

So far, the Biden administration has not congratulated Musk on Polaris Dawn’s push to advance humanity toward becoming a multi-planetary species because of politics.