SpaceX capsule splashes down after history-making Polaris Dawn mission
The capsule splashed down before dawn on Sunday morning in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida's Dry Tortugas islands.
A SpaceX capsule carrying four private citizens splashed down off the coast of Florida before dawn 3:36 a.m. ET on Sunday morning, ending a historic mission that included the world's first all-civilian spacewalk.
Billionaire entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott "Kidd" Poteet and SpaceX engineers Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, returned to Earth in a Crew Dragon capsule, splashing down at off the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Polaris Dawn we are mission complete," operators announced over the crackle of a radio as recovery vessels made their way to the capsule bobbing in the nighttime sea.
The five-day Polaris Dawn flight marked the fifth private mission for SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule. It was also the company's most ambitious expedition, as the crew members and their spacecraft executed several risky maneuvers.
Chief among them was the all-civilian spacewalk that took place on Thursday. Isaacman and Gillis exited the Dragon capsule on a tether, each spending around 10 minutes out in the vacuum of space. The duo spent the spacewalk conducting mobility tests in their newly designed spacesuits.
The outing was a risky undertaking, because the Dragon capsule does not have a pressurized airlock. This meant that all four members of the Polaris Dawn mission wore spacesuits during the spacewalk, and the entire capsule was depressurized to vacuum conditions.
Completion of the spacewalk was a major milestone in the history of human spaceflight. Previously, only astronauts from government space agencies had conducted spacewalks to build or upgrade space stations in orbit, repair satellites and complete science experiments.
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