The SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, which created history when its crew performed the first commercial spacewalk, lasted with a splashdown off the coast of Florida in the United States. According to a webcast of the landing, the Dragon spacecraft crashed into the water at 3:37 a.m. (07:37 GMT) on Sunday. SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn crew returned to Earth, and a recovery team emerged in the predawn darkness to recover the capsule and crew. Half an hour later, the capsule was pulled out of the water and transferred to the rescue vessel.

After quick medical checks, a smiling and waving SpaceX engineer, Anna Menon, was the first to leave, followed by engineer Sarah Gillis, retired United States Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Scott Poteet, and Commander Jared Isaacman. The Polaris Program stated- “A new era of commercial spaceflight dawns, with much more to come.”

The four-person mission led by Isaacman was launched on Tuesday from the Kennedy Space Centre, immediately travelling more deeply into the universe than any human in the previous half-century when they entered the deadly Van Allen radiation belt.

They reached a peak height of 1,400km (870 miles), more than three times higher than the International Space Station. This is the furthest humans have flown from Earth since NASA’s 1968-1972 Apollo missions to the moon.

On Thursday, as Isaacman, 41, opened the hatch and stepped forward to broadcast the first view of the planet from outside, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn crew returned to Earth erupted in cheers.

Source: Al Jazeera

“Back at home, everyone has a lot of work to do. But from here, it appears to be a perfect world,” Isaacman added as the capsule flew above the South Pacific. Cameras on board captured his silhouette, waist-high at the hatch, against the blue Earth underneath.

Isaacman was replaced by Gillis, 30, who performed similar actions, twisting side to side and flexing her limbs to test the durability of a new spacesuit designed to protect the crew from the hostile vacuum environment.

The other two crew members, Poteet (50) and Menon (38) remained within the Dragon capsule but were exposed to the vacuum. They had their own movement and gearbox responsibilities to complete in addition to helping the other two members.

None of the crew reported severe space flight symptoms, including acute motion sickness, which can be lethal in extreme circumstances owing to pressure changes.

The crew also carried out dozens of experiments, including inter-satellite laser communication between the spacecraft and Space X’s Starlink satellite constellation, which involved sending back to ground control a high-resolution video of Gillis playing Rey’s Theme by Star Wars composer John Williams on the violin.

Isaacman, the CEO and founder of Shift4 credit card processing, is only the 264th person to complete a spacewalk since the former Soviet Union’s first in 1965. SpaceX’s Gillis is ranked 265th.

More and more wealthy tourists are paying exorbitant fees for rides on private rockets to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness. Others have emptied tens of millions of dollars remaining in space for days or weeks.

Space specialists and risk analysts believe it is unavoidable that some will seek the thrill of spacewalking. This activity is regarded as one of the most perilous aspects of spaceflight after launch and reentry but also the most soul-stirring. Polaris Dawn is the first of three missions in the Polaris Program, a cooperation between Isaacman and SpaceX.

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