SpaceX Polaris Dawn Capsule Safely Lands in Gulf of Mexico

On September 15, SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn made a successful splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico after completing a groundbreaking five-day mission. This journey marked a historic milestone, as it included the world’s first commercial spacewalk and took astronauts farther from Earth than humans have been since the 1970s.

The Crew Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts, landed off the coast of Dry Tortugas, near Key West, Florida, at precisely 3:37 a.m. EDT on Sunday.

The journey began on Tuesday when the team launched from the Kennedy Space Center aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. A day later, they reached an impressive orbit at an altitude of 870 miles above Earth, the highest orbit achieved by humans since NASA’s Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The previous record for altitude was set during the Gemini 11 mission in 1966, which reached 853 miles.

To safely return to Earth, the capsule performed a critical “de-orbit burn,” which positioned it to re-enter through the densest part of the atmosphere. This maneuver was essential for a controlled descent.

During re-entry, the spacecraft experienced temperatures soaring up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The Crew Dragon capsule’s heat shield, located at its base, provided protection against these extreme conditions. Once the heat shield did its job, the capsule began to decelerate before deploying four parachutes that further slowed its descent.

Post-landing, the capsule briefly floated on the ocean’s surface until rescue teams arrived, facilitating the astronauts’ transfer to a boat designated as the “Dragon’s nest.” The crew on this mission included mission commander Jared Isaacman, a billionaire and CEO of Shift4 Payments, former US Air Force pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX operations engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.

Upon returning to Earth, Isaacman remarked, “SpaceX, back at home we have a lot of work to do, but from here it looks like a perfect world,” as he looked out at Earth from outside the capsule.

Notably, Gillis and Menon became the first women to conduct a spacewalk at such an extreme distance from Earth. This mission posed unique challenges, as the Dragon spacecraft lacked an airlock, leaving its entire interior exposed to the vacuum of space during the spacewalk. Therefore, the astronauts donned specialized spacesuits to ensure their safety.

Isaacman previously orchestrated another mission in November 2020, which involved himself and three crew members circling Earth for three days as part of a fundraising initiative for childhood cancer research. This latest mission continues to illustrate the advancements in commercial space travel and the evolving role of private companies in exploration.