The Polaris Dawn crew is back on Earth after a historic mission

The Polaris Daybreak crew safely returned to Earth early Sunday morning, bringing the historic privately funded mission to a detailed. The Dragon capsule carrying the mission’s 4 astronauts — Jared Isaacman, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon — splashed down within the Gulf of Mexico round 3:30AM ET.

On Thursday, Isaacman and Gillis accomplished the primary business spacewalk, every taking a flip to exit the craft and carry out a collection of spacesuit mobility assessments. And with this mission, Gillis and Menon have now traveled farther from Earth than any girls earlier than. Polaris reached a peak altitude of about 870 miles, which can also be the farthest any people have ventured because the Apollo program.

The crew additionally carried out plenty of science experiments, and was capable of full a 40-minute video name to Earth and ship recordsdata in a significant check for Starlink’s area communications capabilities. That included a video recorded in the course of the mission of Gillis, an engineer and violinist, taking part in the violin in area. “A brand new period of economic spaceflight dawns, with rather more to return,” Polaris posted on X Sunday morning.