{"id":10013,"date":"2024-09-15T19:34:37","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T11:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/polaris-dawn-crew-returns-to-earth-with-splashdown-in-gulf-of-mexico\/"},"modified":"2024-09-15T19:34:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-15T11:34:37","slug":"polaris-dawn-crew-returns-to-earth-with-splashdown-in-gulf-of-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/polaris-dawn-crew-returns-to-earth-with-splashdown-in-gulf-of-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth with splashdown in Gulf of Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update:<\/strong> Splashdown occurred at 3:37 a.m. EDT (0737 UTC)<\/p>\n

\"\"
Dragon Resilience splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 15, 2024. Image: SpaceX.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Polaris Dawn crew closed out a record-setting commercial spaceflight and packed up Saturday for re-entry and a pre-dawn splashdown early Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico northwest of Key West, Florida.<\/p>\n

Flying along a southwest-to-northeast trajectory, the Crew Dragon capsule, carrying billionaire Jared Isaacman, pilot Scott Poteet and company engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis, is expected to fire its braking rockets at 2:40 a.m. EDT Sunday to drop out of orbit.<\/p>\n

Plunging back into the discernible atmosphere, the Crew Dragon\u2019s protective heat shield will endure temperatures as high as 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit before the ship slows enough to deploy its parachutes. Splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico near Dry Tortugas, Florida, is expected around 3:36 a.m.<\/p>\n

A SpaceX recovery ship was stationed nearby to recover the capsule and help the crew members out of the spacecraft for routine post-landing medical checks before a helicopter flight to shore and reunions with family and friends.<\/p>\n

The Polaris Dawn mission, financed by Isaacman in cooperation with SpaceX, was launched from the Kennedy Space Center atop a Falcon 9 rocket early Tuesday. Right off the bat, the crew set a new altitude record for a piloted spacecraft in Earth orbit, reaching a high point, or apogee, of 875 miles.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s farther from Earth than anyone has flown since the final Apollo voyage to the moon in 1972.<\/p>\n

Early Thursday, the crew set another record when Isaacman and Gillis took turns floating just outside the capsule\u2019s hatch in the first non-government spacewalk ever conducted.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world,\u201d Isaacman marveled, taking in a spectacular view of the borderless planet below as he floated into open space just outside the Crew Dragon\u2019s hatch.<\/p>\n

The goal of the brief excursions was to test the SpaceX-designed pressure suits in the harsh environment of space, assessing their mobility and checking the motion of wrist, elbow and shoulder joints to help engineers design improved versions for future flights to the moon and, eventually, Mars.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The Polaris Dawn crew, seen earlier in the mission. Left to right: SpaceX crew trainer and spacewalker Sarah Gillis, pilot Scott Poteet, commander and lead spacewalker Jared Isaacman and SpaceX medical officer Anna Menon. Image: SpaceX.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along with a full slate of biomedical research, the crew also tested laser communications technology linking the Crew Dragon to the Starlink constellation of commercial internet relay satellites.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarly this morning via @Starlink space lasers, the Polaris Dawn crew chatted with SpaceX teams over coffee and donuts,\u201d SpaceX posted on X Saturday. \u201cDuring the 40+ minute uninterrupted video call, Dragon completed half an orbit over the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S., cutting southeast over the Atlantic Ocean and rounding the Cape of Good Hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the mission, Gillis, an accomplished violist, participated in what amounted to an international concert from space, performing composer John Williams\u2019 \u201cStar Wars\u201d song \u201cRey\u2019s Theme,\u201d accompanied by young musicians in the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Sweden and Uganda.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/x.com\/PolarisProgram\/status\/1834557770374296010<\/p>\n

The Polaris Dawn mission is the first of three planned by Isaacman, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, in cooperation with Musk.<\/p>\n

The second flight will be another Crew Dragon mission while the third will be the first piloted flight of SpaceX\u2019s huge Super Heavy-Starship rocket, now under development in Texas.
\nIt\u2019s not known how much Isaacman is paying for the flights or how much SpaceX funded on its own.<\/p>\n

Polaris Dawn is SpaceX\u2019s fifth commercial Crew Dragon flight to orbit and its 14th including NASA missions carrying crew members to the International Space Station. The California rocket builder has now launched 54 men and women to orbit since piloted flights began in May 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update: Splashdown occurred at 3:37 a.m. EDT (0737 UTC) Dragon Resilience splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 15, 2024. Image: SpaceX. The Polaris Dawn crew closed out a record-setting commercial spaceflight and packed up Saturday for re-entry and a pre-dawn splashdown early Sunday in the Gulf of Mexico northwest of Key West, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}