SpaceX Crew Dragon(or Resilience) carrying the Polaris Dawn crewmembers, splashed down safely in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida at 0736 UTC on Sunday(Sept. 15) concluding the 5-day mission during which the astronauts performed the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
"Polaris Dawn we are mission complete. Thanks for all the big help pulling this mission together," said mission commander and funder Jared Isaacman after the crew splashed down in the ocean. His crewmates were Scott "Kidd" Poteet, a former U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who served as pilot, and mission specialists Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon, both of whom are engineers at SpaceX.
"It is with great relief that I welcome you home! This mission was even more extraordinary than I anticipated. Sarah -- that global orchestral performance made me tear up! Thank you all for taking this journey," SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell wrote on X.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk wrote "Polaris crew is home safe & sound!"
Resilience reentry was reportedly observed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station(ISS). "We actually had a pretty neat view of Polaris Dawn entering," said NASA astronaut Mike Barratt. "All of us were more or less crowded in the cupola watching it. That was pretty spectacular for us."
Recovery teams deployed nearby, approached Crew Dragon after splashdown Sunday, and the spacecraft was hoisted onto the deck of the recovery ship, where support personnel assisted the crew in exiting the spacecraft.
Following the crew's egress from the spacecraft, they were transported by helicopter back to shore.
During the 5-day mission, the Polaris Dawn crewmembers performed a variety of tasks, including 36 science experiments for 31 different institutions. Much of the orbital work will benefit NASA's Human Research Program. In addition to the historic spacewalk, Crew Dragon also reached a maximum altitude of 1,400.7 kilometers -- the furthest from our planet than any astronauts had traveled since the Apollo program ended in 1972.
Gillis, on Friday(Sept 13), released a very inspiring masterpiece, recorded in space and sent to Earth via Starlink internet satellite. The music video which immediately went viral on social media, is dedicated to charity.
Polaris Dawn was the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program which "seeks to demonstrate important operational capabilities that will serve as building blocks to help further human exploration to the moon, Mars and beyond," according to its website.
The next mission has not been announced, but 'Flight 3' will be the first crewed mission of SpaceX's megarocket Starship, according to the Polaris Program.
